Margaret Cho talks polyamory, pansexualy and her parents' gay bookstore

Contents:

• MARGARET CHO TALKS POLYAMORY, PANSEXUALY AND HER PARENTS' GAY BOOKSTORE
• FIRE ISLAND'S MARGARET CHO ON WHY, BOTH POLICS AND POP CULTURE, "GAY IS HERE TO STAY"
• IS MARGARET CHO GAY? THE COMEDIAN INTIFI AS BISEXUAL THOUGH SHE BELIEV PANSEXUALY AS WELL
• MARGARET CHO ON WHY THE SUPREME COURT POTENTIALLY OVERTURNG GAY MARRIAGE IS ‘TERRIFYG’
• MARGARET CHO EXPLAS WHY SHE’S HOLDG GAY WEDDGS ON HER PSYCHO COMEDY TOUR
• MARGARET CHO: 'JOHN TRAVOLTA IS LIKE OSR WIL GAY'
• MARGARET CHO CALLS EXPECTED REVERSAL OF ROE V. WA AND THREATS TO GAY MARRIAGE “DISGTG”
• MARGARET CHO TALKS POLYAMORY, PANSEXUALY AND HER PARENTS' GAY BOOKSTORE
• OUTG (AND WHY GAY CELEBRI NEED TO LEAVE THE CLOSET)

MARGARET CHO TALKS POLYAMORY, PANSEXUALY AND HER PARENTS' GAY BOOKSTORE

Katty Huertas / TODAY / Getty ImagJune 1, 2021, 11:35 AM UTC / Source: TODAYWhen Margaret Cho and I sat down for our terview last month for two articl, one cidg wh Asian Pacific Amerin Herage Month and another for LGBTQ Pri Month this June, I was surprised to learn of a fascatg bullet pot her life edian, actor and podst host has been surround by queerns sce she was a young 1978, Cho’s parents, Young-Hie and Sng-Hoon Cho, bought a bookstore lled Paperbook Traffic San Francis’s gay neighborhood, the Castro District.

FIRE ISLAND'S MARGARET CHO ON WHY, BOTH POLICS AND POP CULTURE, "GAY IS HERE TO STAY"

Cho likens her experience to the one featured the Ryan Murphy documentary “Circ of Books, ” which prented the story of a Los Angel gay bookstore that was owned by a straight, Jewish uple. “We had rollg racks of gay romance novels like ‘Cobalt’ and we had ‘Honcho’ and ‘Blue Boy’ and ‘Dmmer Magaze’ the magaze stands. My parents had a gay bookstore and he was one of the people who did book signgs there.

IS MARGARET CHO GAY? THE COMEDIAN INTIFI AS BISEXUAL THOUGH SHE BELIEV PANSEXUALY AS WELL

And while her parents were fortable wh the gay culture bee of their work, they still weren’t acceptg when she me out years later as bisexual. It sounds very gay chic. "It's very gay om an Asian Amerin perspective, " she said of Yang's work on "Saturday Night Live.

That has been silenced, the gay Asian experience really is unheard.

”Cho said she also wants the LGBTQ muny to reclaim a ntroversial term ed to refer to gay people: "u. Wh her starrg role Joel Kim Booster’s gay rom- Fire Island, Margaret Cho fally has a project that reflects the kd of clive sexualy she’s advoted for throughout her reer. In the film, which buts June 3 on Hulu, Cho plays Er, mother hen to a gaggle of gays payg their annual vis to her A.

MARGARET CHO ON WHY THE SUPREME COURT POTENTIALLY OVERTURNG GAY MARRIAGE IS ‘TERRIFYG’

” “Our Gay Pla. ” [Lghg] Very David Attenborough: “The gay Asians go to Fire Island.

Of urse, then you have the view of straight people lookg through the gay lens, or thgs like whatever is all of Ryan Murphy’s work. I thk my favore gay films are probably often actually through the straight lens, which is, you know, [The Adventur of Priscilla, Queen of the Dert] or somethg like Call Me By Your Name.

The are all through the straight lens so ’s hard to know, “Is that a gay film? So fally, we get the gay Do you have a favore rom-? It’s about race and class wh gay life.

MARGARET CHO EXPLAS WHY SHE’S HOLDG GAY WEDDGS ON HER PSYCHO COMEDY TOUR

I thk a lot of tim if you are gay, you image you n’t possibly be classist or sexist or racist, [but] we have problems wh all those. AVC: Gay people know about gag power through sex.

MARGARET CHO: 'JOHN TRAVOLTA IS LIKE OSR WIL GAY'

But then gayns, also, you lead wh your gay foot forward and you don’t thk about all of the other bias that n exist wh you. So that tersectnaly is still somethg that we’re tryg to grapple wh the gay muny.

You’re seeg the rise of that, also wh the anti-gay legislatn out there, but nobody’s buyg to if you look at culture. It’s almost like the more you hear om the anti-gay tablishment, the more entertament ris up to nquer that. I mean, if you look at jt some of the outfs at Coachella, you know gay is here to stay!

Gayns is on the rise! " The "Real" hosts also broached a popular topic: Why durg a stand-up stop Atralia April did Cho make ments that outed John Travolata as gay?

MARGARET CHO CALLS EXPECTED REVERSAL OF ROE V. WA AND THREATS TO GAY MARRIAGE “DISGTG”

"Well, 'e I'm gay, " she rpond. " Back 2011, a blog for HuffPost Gay Voic, Cho explaed why she intifi as "queer.

" Cho stated that havg an open marriage do e wh specific boundari, addg at some pot, she do sire an emotnal monogamist relatnship wh the same openly gay, the edian also has strong views on LGBT rights. "Ined, Cho's lbian character Er is the doyenne of queers the film that stars Booster as Noah, a handsome young gay man who dons his Pri and Prejudice Elizabeth Ben persona and sil his Fire Island hook-up plans until he helps his iend Howie (Bowen Yang) get laid.

MARGARET CHO TALKS POLYAMORY, PANSEXUALY AND HER PARENTS' GAY BOOKSTORE

The edian grew up San Francis where her parents owned a gay bookstore, but as a groundbreaker her muni, she's aware of the role that chosen or logil fay holds for a lot of young queer Asian folks. "In terms of growg up and when your fay rejects your homosexualy, you turn to curatg your own fay.

Yet, Asian culture oftentim is pretty much the most patriarchal and the most homophobic, " Cho says. "On s surface, Fire Island is rife wh r sex jok, stunng vistas of that Bacchanalian strip of beach and bars, and pretty men, but also go ep to important them of anti-Asian sentiment, class stggle, queer hierarchi, and body-shamg among gay men.

OUTG (AND WHY GAY CELEBRI NEED TO LEAVE THE CLOSET)

But then there's a lot of important hard-htg tth about class, and race, and all of the difficulti that e wh beg a young gay man of lor, and pecially New York.

Then aga, he do reprent a edian whose most recent live tour, 2015’s PsyCHO, volved a lengthy dramatic imagg of an ice-bucket-style chary challenge for gay men performg cunnilg. ” For years, Cho, who intifi as queer, referred to herself as a “fag-hag” her shows, shoutg a slur that has historilly been aimed at gay people, to nervo gasps om the dience. We need to regnize that a ernment that would ny a gay man the right to bridal registry is a fascist state.

And then everybody really lov, like, jt to hear her voice through that, whether that's, like, bee she thks my haircuts: "The haircut very gay.