Skip to main contentTim Miller has faced many official obstacles as an American artist. As one of the NEA 4, he became a punching bag for Sen. Jesse Helms and the Baptists' Taliban wing, as Miller's work was (and remains) unabashedly queer, angry and nakedly personal. In other words, highly political.
The right wing managed to kill Miller's NEA grant but hasn't succeeded in silencing the 44-year-old performer, though it can still make life difficult. Miller and his long-term partner, Alistair McCartney, are faced with the prospect of fleeing the U.S., since McCartney, an Australian, cannot legally remain here, and America refuses to acknowledge any rights for gay couples.
In his latest piece, US, Miller takes on his native land's brutality while, simultaneously, coming out of the closet as a fan of one of America's most hopeful inventions: the Musical. WW spoke with Miller last week.
WW: Have you a departure date?
Tim Miller: Alistair and I are trying our best to hang on by our Lee Press-On nails. He has about six months left on his work visa, so Oct. 3 is the current "get forced out of Amerika and seek freedom in the civilized world" date.
Do you think you'll feel any twinges of being "unpatriotic" by leaving?
Absolutely not! Exile is as American as apple pie and incessant warmongering. Alistair and I are not the ones betraying "all men are created equal" and "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The U.S. is the one violating these crucial values. But Americans have had to flee our country's human-rights violations throughout history: Just ask the slaves, Native Americans, and the more than half a million Americans during Vietnam who sought asylum in Canada. Certainly these days thousands of queer Americans have headed north to have their humanity recognized with Canadian marriage licenses.
Many foreign gay movements that have inspired more advanced thinking in their home countries than exists here still mark their first move toward liberation with our own Stonewall. Do you think America can ever recapture its own radicalism?
I think what is going on right now in Massachusetts and California is the most important period of activism we have ever seen in this country. The energy of the gay couples pouring into San Francisco this weekend to be married is one of the most powerful civil disobedience acts in American history. I have tried to get a marriage license with Alistair as a civil disobedience act many times.
Is there a radical musical?
Speaking as a queer performer who has taken his clothes off on the world stage, my favorite is Gypsy. I wanted to be Gypsy Rose Lee when I grew up. Like her I wanted to escape from my family, find my voice, find a better place, and take off my clothes on stage in front of men. When I was 8, I would do strip teases for the neighbor boys to Gypsy. During sleepovers my friends would shine their flashlights on me as they improvised stripper mouth-trumpet music. Off went my mismatched pajamas, the flannel NASA astronaut tops and the cotton cowboy-themed bottoms, to their WAH, WAH, WAAAAs. I probably looked like a freaky Hummel figurine taking it off...taking it all off.
Howie Baggadonutz Presents at the Echo Theatre, 1515 SE 37th Ave., 224-8499. 8 pm Saturday, Feb. 21. $16+ advance (TicketsWest), $19 door.
WWeek 2015