John Cameron Mitchell On The Current Sad State Of Gay Culture

The cute, very talented John Cameron Mitchell is not a fan of the gay, despite being openly gay, the creator of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus, and director of Rabbit Hole telling The Advocate that he is finished with the thoroughly modern gay man’s slavish devotion to all things Lady Gaga and the like. “So I get a little homophobic lately when I meet young people who just assume that this is what you’re supposed to be because you’re gay,” says Mitchell. “It makes me feel like I’m in some sort of frat society where you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to listen to that, you’ve got to wear these clothes. Ageism is stronger. There’s more sort of an anorexic point of view about body issues.” And of queer cinema, Mitchell says that “’Gay film’ means ‘stupid kind of lamebrained date film with pecs,” adding that “The price of assimilation is mediocrity ... I think we’ve made great strides toward mediocrity.”