Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

“Yes, I use foundation. I live with a man. I’m just an old queer. That’s right! But I know who I am now. It’s taken me 20 years to come to this, Laurent.”

Renato in Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage aux Folles

Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray

Happy Pride Month. And Happy Birthday to playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein who was born on this day in 1954. This interesting and busy no-apologies gay human won Tony Awards for writing and performing in his play Torch Song Trilogy, and also for his book for the musical La Cage aux Folles, and his performance as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray.

Fierstein also wrote the books for the Tony Award-winning musicals Kinky Boots, Newsies, and Tony Award-nominated, Drama League Award-winner A Catered Affair. In 2007, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Other dramas include the plays Safe Sex and Casa Valentina. As an actor, Fierstein has appeared in numerous films and television shows.

Generating rave reviews in 2003, Fierstein gave a high-spirited cross-dressing performance on Broadway in the blockbuster stage musical version of John Waters's theatrical film Hairspray. And since this is Pride Month, let’s think about the lingering issue of our state legislatures targeting LGBTQ+ people. Thankfully, just two days ago, a federal judge ruled that Tennessee’s first-in-the-nation law designed to place strict limits on drag shows is unconstitutional.

In March, Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill to ban "male and female impersonators," otherwise known as drag performers. They were especially concerned about drag queens performing in public spaces where children could be present. Do you know of any 10-year olds savvy enough to sneak away from parental supervision to find bonafide drag shows? U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker wrote that the law was both “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.” He also added that the statute encouraged “discriminatory enforcement.”

Kerri Colby, a queen, has spoken out about the hate coming from such conservative strongholds. In Variety, she said, “Bills like these create more stigma, discrimination and ultimately violence against LGBTQ folks — particularly transgender and nonbinary people.”

A number of years ago, my daughter called me, excited about a new clothes store near the library where she works in Hoover. And what I thought she said was, “And it’s called Cross Dress for Less.” I thought, wow. Hoover is really more progressive than I thought. I asked her the name again, and found it was really Ross Dress for Less. Oh well, hopes dashed

Let’s face it: Cross gender dressing has been a part of the entertainment and arts culture for thousands of years. For all those great roles in Greek tragedies and comedies, women weren’t allowed on stage because well, they were discriminated against. At the time, the excuse was that acting was considered “dangerous.” So men dressed as women and played juicy parts like Jocaste, Clytemnestra, Antigone, and Medea. During the time of Shakespeare, according to Writers Theatre, “female actors were associated with sexual incontinence, prostitution, lasciviousness and indecency.” So men (or young boys) dressed as women and played juicy parts like Cleopatra, Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, Juliet, Katherina, Olivia, Ophelia, Portia — and on and on.

It wasn’t until the 17th century in Europe, that opera invited women to the stage since not all those high notes could be sung by the castrati. Aphra Behn rebelled against cultural norms and launched a career as the first professional female playwright. And women began to appear on stage in England during Charles I's reign (1625-1649), though the actors were usually French, not English. As early as 1899, Sarah Bernhardt surprised the theatre world portraying the title role of Hamlet. And today, we see female or gender neutral versions of shows from 1776! to The Odd Couple, As You Like It to Hamilton.

Cross dressing is sometimes necessary. Anyone who has taught theatre in elementary school, high school, or college has probably (out of necessity) cast girls in male roles. Because women weren’t allowed on stage for so long, playwrights created many more roles for men than women. And let’s admit, many writers were also staunch members of the ruling patriarchy.

Cross dressing can be hilarious. Look at mainstream movies: What’s wrong with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot? Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari in Bosom Buddies? Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie? John Travolta in Hairspray? Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire? Nathan Lane in The Birdcage? Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor? Tyler Perry? Look at England’s Christmas Pantomimes. British telly and film, including the Bennie Hill Show, Mrs. Brown’s Boys, Monty Python. And let’s not pretend that children didn’t watch these shows, or that conservative political folks didn’t guffaw along with their liberal supposed adversaries.

So the laws are much less about “saving” our children’s morals and much more about targeting people who are “different.” In the U.S., a small number — one to 2.2 percent — of men and women identify as gay. Despite that low number, I have had many close relationships and friendships with gay people since my childhood friend Barry was my favorite doll playing neighbor. My best male artist buddy in high school was queer. Numerous friends at the University of Montevallo where I went to school were gay, one of whom — Joe Taylor — remains my best friend today. Quite a few fellow theatre workers identify as LGBTQ. And my church St. Andrew’s Episcopal, has been open to EVERYONE, actually meaning everyone, since the 1960s.

In the 1990s, the Episcopal Church and our diocese asked all parishes to study human sexuality. We had a fine priest and psychologist teach a long series on the subject. A huge takeaway from the class was that many studies have offered the idea that sex is not the simplistic and dualistic male or female that we suppose. Rather, it is a continuum that emerges from a person’s genetic makeup. He told us that if every person in the world lined up from most heterosexual to most homosexual, we would all fall in that continuous sequence at some point. Homosexuality, then, or any sexuality (including transgender) is not a choice but is driven by biological factors. Like our hair color. Like our eye color. Like our height.

So is the anti-gay legislation yet one more attempt to uphold family values? My gay friends emanate family values. They are honest and trustworthy; courageous and loyal; empathetic and generous; celebratory and supportive; fun-loving and serious. If you don’t like drag shows, don’t frequent them. For Pride Month 2023, can we mind our own business, and work on our own issues? Can we respect other people regardless of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability? Can we love our neighbors? Can we love ourselves? Can we be inclusive as if we are all one — because we are!

Or as Harvey Fierstein, the openly gay celebrity birthday boy, says, “I do believe we’re all connected. I do believe in positive energy. I do believe in the power of prayer. I do believe in putting good out into the world. And I believe in taking care of each other.”