(Originally Published on Queer Voices on 8/29/2013)

Nothing Is Sacred: An Interview With Margaret Cho

I previously reported that actress & comedian Margaret Cho is bringing her new stand-up show “Mother” to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland this November, and this week I had the pleasure of interviewing this amazing, hilarious talent for Queer Voices on QBlog!

Margaret and I talked about gay men and their mother figures, what it’s like to have intersecting minority identities these days in Hollywood, how weird “Dancing With The Stars” fame is, and much more.

Read our chat below, then get your tickets to the Portland stop of Margaret Cho’s “Mother” tour HERE.

Logan Lynn: Hi Margaret! Thanks for carving some time out for me today.

Margaret Cho: Thank you!

Logan Lynn: The name of your new tour is “Mother”, so I’m guessing it’s about…politics? Animal rights?

Margaret Cho: (Laughs) Well, it is about a lot of different things. It’s about my own mother a little, but it’s also about being at the age where everybody perceives you to be a mother. In your 30’s and 40’s you’re kind of looked at as a mother figure, and then I have a lot of friends who are younger than me, who consider me kind of the maternal figure in their lives. Certainly as a hag, you know, like, a fag hag, you get to this stage where you become like a mother, where they just start calling you mother. That’s a great place to get to, that grand dame queen mother identity; so that’s part of what the show is, too.

Logan Lynn: Do you feel like that’s why gay men have historically been so magnetized your way? Do you fill some sort of mother-shaped void for us?

Margaret Cho: I think that’s true. I think it’s why sometimes gay culture is Read the rest of this entry »

I had the chance to catch up with queer author, columnist, and provocateur Dan Savage this week for QBlog in advance of his new book “American Savage”, which comes out on Tuesday! We chatted about sex, marriage equality, community pushback, transphobia, biphobia, bullying, the new book and more.

Read my interview with Dan below, then come out to Powell’s books this Sunday at 2pm for a Q Center-sponsored reading, Q&A, and meet and greet with Mr. Savage himself!

******************

Logan Lynn: Hey Dan. Thanks for squeezing me into your busy schedule today. I’m looking forward to your book launch event at Powell’s in Portland coming up this weekend on June 2nd! How does it feel to be making these book rounds once again?

Dan Savage: (Laughs) It feels good. It’s been 7 years since I managed to carve out the time to sit down and write a book because they invented blogging and podcasting and vlogging and Twitter and Instagram. It’s not enough anymore to write a weekly column or bust out a few news items a week. You have to be constantly running your mouth online. It really takes the time away that I used to be able to put into plowing away at a book. It was a tough thing to manage.

Lynn: Well, I’m looking forward to reading it. You recently won an Emmy as well, correct?

Savage: Yeah. I didn’t win an Emmy, everybody who participated in the It Gets Better project won an Emmy. It was awarded The Governor’s Award, which is kind-of their Up With People, social justice, good works award. We are really proud to have gotten (the Emmy) but it was for the project and it’s because of the great impact it has had. The Emmy wasn’t for me and Terry. It was for all of us.

Lynn: That’s really great. What has been the most rewarding part of being involved with the It Gets Better project for you?

Savage: I’ve heard from so many LGBT kids who were helped by the project. People don’t write newspaper stories about kids who don’t kill themselves, so most of these stories aren’t out there and people don’t hear them. I now have ongoing penpal/Twitterpal relationships with some of the Read the rest of this entry »