09/24/2007
Chris Crocker: "I'm the Key to World Peace"
TMZ ran into Chris Crocker emerging from Mr. Chow on Saturday night. Crocker appears to be thoroughly enjoying the temporary window of fame his wailing rant about Britney Spears has afforded him.
Crocker also gets a profile treatment from the Associated Press:
"It's tough to be openly gay in a conservative Southern town, he says. There have always been death threats, bullying and glares at his clothes and makeup. Oh, and he's always pushing someone's buttons. 'My grandparents can't go to their church any more,' said Crocker, his spunk clouded momentarily with genuine concern. He's fiercely protective of his grandparents, Pentecostal Christians who took over raising him when his teenage parents couldn't. Crocker said his outrageous behavior, a stark contrast to the rest of the family, started when he was in kindergarten. He raised eyebrows that year for bringing Barbie dolls to class for show-and-tell. 'What I do affects them, and I feel bad for that,' he said of his family. Crocker's grandmother, who declined to be interviewed, is seen in a handful of his videos, appearing as an uncomfortable bystander. In one, Crocker is imitating a Christian woman interviewing his grandmother, who says she loves her grandson. In another, his grandmother is patiently arguing with him over his attitude. Crocker said that when she agreed to be taped, 'she didn't really grasp the size of the audience.'"
Has Andy Warhol's "15 minutes" quote ever seemed more prescient?
Posted 10:04 AM EST by Andy Towle in Britney Spears, Chris Crocker, Internet Celebs, News | Permalink
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There's much more to him than just a screaming queen. He's quite ignorant, but not stupid & has insight. He's almost a performative artist. He has irony & presents a public persona.
He's not representing anyone but himself.
And, finally, do you have a problem because he's effeminate? We all are, honey. Gender is a construction.
Posted by: Paul | Sep 24, 2007 12:13:22 PM
"And, finally, do you have a problem because he's effeminate? We all are, honey. Gender is a construction."
I could care less if he was the most flaming person on Earth. I just despise the celebration of obnoxious naiveté.
Posted by: RP | Sep 24, 2007 12:19:32 PM
maybe he's making the haters more visible, but they're going to exist whether the talking gay is chris crocker, or, what, who else. gee, there aren't many, are there - how about that. andrew sullivan? tom fucking ford? i'd rather know who hates me than not knowing who's hiding it.
Posted by: brad | Sep 24, 2007 12:24:09 PM
"His grandparents...took over raising him when his teenage parents couldn't." Well if Chris Crocker isn't the poster child for giving teens access to birth control (or retroactive abortions), I don't know who is.
Posted by: Mark | Sep 24, 2007 12:40:50 PM
Thanks, The Queen: You know, Queen, (if you don't mind me getting familiar by shortening your title)it's been one of the greatest disappointments of my life to see prejudice within the gay world. As an earlier poster said, some gay men hate effeminate males as much as straight guys. When I was in twelth grade there was a group of younger gay guys who I noticed were starting to hang together as a group. I was so glad to see them, wanted to make friends with them. Then I discovered that they considered me too "sissified" to be around. Don't put on the maudlin violins, I aint startin' to cry or nothin'--it just made me realize that every gay man aint your friend, especially if you had a fabulous Joan Crawford walk! Some of the ones who hate "queens" are some of the nastiest, meanest bitches to ever put on a pair of Timberlands. The AIDS Epidemic changed a lot of that mutual animosity (at least for our generation) Unfortunately, AIDS was the great equalizer: it humbled many a gay man who thought he was superior to the "silly, stereotypical queens".
Look, fems go back thousands of years in every culture on this Earth. We used to be called eunuchs and catamites, etc. Nobody knows how we or why we occur. Our desire to be feminine is stronger than our homosexuality...has to be, we're told often that if we acted more masculine it would increase our sexual comodity in the gay world. Our answer to that is, "fuck off".
If I were younger, I might be concerned about how difficult it is to date, make friends, be respected if you are seen as too effeminate. But at my age, these wannabe masculine gay guys (who look down on fems) can go sit down on the Washington Monument--with enough KY Jelly most of them could.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Sep 24, 2007 12:44:24 PM
Wow, for a second there I thought I was reading the comments of the bigots on youtube that are calling for this little queens death. Crocker does not represent the way I act, talk, or dress but I will defend this human being and his right to be fabulous or at least his version of it, with all my heart.
Posted by: JZN | Sep 24, 2007 12:45:53 PM
It was the nelly weird queens who helped to kick-start the whole GLBT rights movement, so let's not get too snippy about this kid. He's a small town sissy who is having his 15 minutes on youtube... he's not molding public policy or anything. Anyone who would see this kid's behavior and generalize it to our entire community is a person who's already so bigoted that they're beyond help.
I like sissies. I also like butch masculine guys. And I like everything in between. The one thing I insist on is that the person in question is completely 100% authentic. Can you imagine the balls it takes to be that nelly in rural Tennessee? Give the kid a break and let him fly his freak flag as high as he can. That's what America is all about. His 15 minutes will be over soon, and we can all go back to watching Project Runway.
Posted by: Brian | Sep 24, 2007 12:58:07 PM
A little sad that even on this site, we get some comments similar to the hate spewed towards this kid on Youtube. Calling him a "thing"? Violent fantasies about running over him with a Hummer? WTF!!!
Why are some of you so afraid of this kid (those kinds of hateful comments just stink of fear and self-hatred)?
Why does this have to be about someone "representing" you? F that! Chris Crocker represents Chris Crocker. You worry about representing your own self.
Posted by: darb | Sep 24, 2007 1:38:02 PM
crumbs like him are why i hate You-Tube.
Posted by: A.J | Sep 24, 2007 1:44:00 PM
Crocker is the gay Paris Hilton: vapid, pointless, bitchy, and only famous for being vapid, pointless and bitch.
Posted by: givemeabreak | Sep 24, 2007 1:54:49 PM
I feel like the only one who thinks he's an actor. He wasn't crying really during his Britney rant: no tears! And his character breaks at times, especially when he's on talk shows. I dunno guys, I'm actually quite entertained by him, although I do have to watch some of his videos through my hand-telescope so I can look away if I have to.
And in any case... I contend that intolerance of any sort is the seed of bigotry.
Posted by: justincredible | Sep 24, 2007 1:57:16 PM
Jesus, i'm appalled at the comments I see here regarding Chris. Admittedly, yes, he's a very colorful character, but you guys sound no better than anything the straight population are saying about him...way to stick up for your fellow gay man, jerks. WHO FUCKING CARES how he acts? He seems like a character with a lot of camera presence, which is what people look for on TV anyway. Christ, I'd rather watch him than some fucking boring "super macho" homo on the TV. :-/
Posted by: adam | Sep 24, 2007 2:02:56 PM
Oh, I would pay to see a Celebrity Death Match between Chris Crocker and William Sledd. Eyes would get scratched out, don't you know.
Posted by: Matilda | Sep 24, 2007 2:22:50 PM
"when we get old we're self-deprecating, humble, and lovable..."
While I agree that younger gays are often as you described (it's the Paris Hilton virus), I know enough older gays to disagree emphatically with the above characterization. Some older gays acquire (or already had) lovability, humility, et cetera... Others just become the most bitter, unpleasant people you've ever, ever met.
Posted by: Kyle | Sep 24, 2007 2:26:24 PM
Whatever one thinks of Cracker, er Crocker, misrepresenting history serves no one. Does no one read anymore?
"It was the nelly weird queens who helped to kick-start the whole GLBT rights movement" — uh, no, it wasn't, not by any stretch of historical imagination.
The first significant public movement towards gay equality was begun in Germany by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld who published his first pamphlet on the subject in 1896. Whereas, he apparently was privately a cross-dresser and is credited with coining the term “transvestism,” his public persona was far from "nelly weird queen" as evident to anyone who has seen his appearance in the surviving parts of the pioneering 1919 film "Anders als die Andern" ("Different From the Others").
Hirschfeld inspired a German immigrant to the US, Henry Gerber, to start the first known American homosexual rights group in Chicago in 1924, though it lasted only a few months before being shut down by police. His subsequent writing, usually under a pseudonym, influenced others who later created more successful organizations such as Harry Hay. Those who knew Gerber describe him as odd in some ways but not in the same way as Fraulein Crocker. True, Hay would later help found Radical Faeries but is best remembered for the Mattachine Society which would have shuddered at Crocker’s self-serving exhibitionism. [At the same time, most like to forget Hay’s support of NAMBLA.]
While some “queens” were AMONG those who fought back at Stonewall, there is no consensus among people who were there, including them, about who did what first. There is no disagreement that they were not the ones who made it famous in the ensuing years, and, in fact, no substantive progress from the decriminalization of sodomy to anti job discrimination legislation to marriage in Massachusetts and domestic partnerships in other states can be attributed to people like Crocker. In fact, there is, empirically, the converse, such as the damage Stonewall vet Sylvia Rivera did to the early efforts to pass a gay rights bill in NYC.
It’s one thing to respect, even celebrate, individuals for being who they are. It is quite another to assert they are something they are not.
Posted by: Leland Frances | Sep 24, 2007 2:45:14 PM
I think it's positively hysterical he's chowin' with Bret Michael's Rock of Love trainwreck (and porn star) Brandi C. They each in great company, no doubt.
Posted by: fivefathoms | Sep 24, 2007 3:23:45 PM
It should be "it's tough to be effeminate," and he obviously doesn't represent the "gay communities." Effeminate and gay should be independent, because there are also effeminate straight guys. He is promoting the indifference.
Posted by: rdiazsi | Sep 24, 2007 3:29:30 PM
I respect what you're saying, Leland. As usual, you're knowledge of gay history is second to nobody or no one (you know I aint fond of Standard English). The only question I have is that before Dr. Hirschfeld, weren't there homosexual sub-cultures that existed in metropolitan areas for centuries from ancient times to the red-light districts of New York, London, Paris, etc. Were not the people who populated these "bohemian" neighborhoods the foundation of what we now call "gay"? They weren't the homosexuals who just came to party on a Saturday night then went back to the straight world on Sunday morning. They were the effeminate homosexuals who couldn't hide, couldn't pass for straight even if they tried, a la', Ms Crocker. Look, queens are not known for being politically active, but couldn't the very existence of a drag queen in 1920 be seen as an act of valient disobedience against a repressive society? Or were we just trying to be a bunch of Theda Baras and Mamie Smiths?
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Sep 24, 2007 3:35:50 PM
For God's sake, "your" in sentence #2, and "valiant" in my grand finale. I know one damn thing, queens sure have trouble spelling, but we're good at math...well, the butch queens are.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Sep 24, 2007 3:41:13 PM
You know the haters are the ones at home singing Kelly Clarkson songs clutching their remotes so they won't miss the VMA's and worried if their new Alain Mikel sunglasses are going to be hip enough for Fire Island this year.
The mainstreamifcation of the gay community is the most repugnant thing about this post. This is the person that made it safe for you to leave your home and wear pink . . . Oh wait! You wouldn't be caught dead in pink! A nice shade of boring would be perfect.
Broaden your minds and wake up.
Posted by: Br!on | Sep 24, 2007 3:43:01 PM
Leland, the history lesson is appreciated. But surely your point isn't to rationalize hating on effeminate gay men because, as you interpret history, they weren't REALLY the driving force behind the modern drive for equal rights for gays? C'mon already.
Posted by: Turtle | Sep 24, 2007 3:46:18 PM
LEAVE CHRIS ALONE!!!!
Posted by: Jordan | Sep 24, 2007 3:56:10 PM
His/her/its fifteen minutes of fame is certainly over by now, right? Shim needs to move on and shut the hell up now.
Posted by: aw! | Sep 24, 2007 4:17:39 PM
guys, he's only 19.
seriously --relaaaax.
Posted by: ghostfacemillah | Sep 24, 2007 4:23:14 PM
Derrick from Philly: "He ought to get out of Tennessee though. He belongs in San Francisco, New York, LA or Pittsburg."
Pittsburg? Really? As far as gayborhoods go, I think Chicago and Miami (D.C.? Atlanta? Boston?) have a little room on Pittsburg. Just sayin', is all.
Sincerely,
lovin' life in Boystown, CHICAGO
Posted by: Boyztown Boy | Sep 24, 2007 4:25:23 PM