a sad day for old school drag queens
In sad news, Tamara "Tammy" Faye Messner, passed away on Friday (March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007) after a battle with colon cancer. For those of you who did not grow up in the 1980s following the much publicized scandals involving the Moral Majority and their televangelists (stealing millions of dollars from their followers) her passing might not mean a lot but for the rest of us Tammy Faye was the only decent (if totally naive) person in a bunch xenophobic, homophobic crooks that made the term "family values" a hissing and a curse and claimed AIDS was their god's punishment on Queer people for their "lifestyle choices." Whatever. Perhaps Frank Zappa's song, "Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk," sums up how the rest of us felt rather nicely. "[Pat] Robertson says that hes the one/ Oh he sure is,/ If armageddon/ Is your idea of family fun,/ And hes got some planned for you!/ (now, tell me that ain't true)/ Jesus thinks you're a jerk …"
But what I remember Tammy Faye best for is that she was the only televangelist who openly championed Gay rights in a time when the Gay and Lesbian communities in America were heavily under siege by those who preached only hatred and violence towards them. In an NPR interview old school drag queen and NYC icon Lady Bunny said, "Whoever thought that a televangelist would become a gay icon? But somehow it happened." Indeed. In the same interview, Randy Shulman, publisher of a gay newsweekly in Washington, D.C., says, "We could all stand to learn a lesson from [Tammy Faye], because if you can find it in your heart to love everybody, no matter what their flaws, then how is that a bad thing?"
I suppose I would not have had Tammy Faye on my mind of late if it wasn't for the fact that The Eyes of Tammy Faye, a documentary of her life narrated by RuPaul, happens to be one of Mary's (my sister/in/law) favorite movies.
Tammy Faye, you will be missed.