Ofelia: You were exploring the erasure of homo-history back in 2008 when you did the “Gay Bodies! Gay Souls!” piece. Did “Ian MacKinnon’s Gay Hist-Orgy” evolve from that earlier work? 

Ian: Knowing our history is important to me because it is empowering and it puts the present into focus. It’s good to know how homosexuals have been treated throughout history. It sheds light on our current situation. And I feel that learning about how the ancient Chinese emperors were gay, and the Sufi mystic poets found god through gay love, and many who shaped our modern world like Plato and da Vinci and Abe Lincoln were gay, gives me a kind of strength and a deeper understanding of gay purpose. And yes it’s totally important for srt8s to know homo history. It is hidden from them too and there is so much unconscious homophobia that goes on, I think it can be eye opening. I think straights who come to the show usually dig it.

Ofelia: Were you ever worried that people might not be interested enough in history to make creating the show worth the effort? 

Ian: Yes I often have people tell me they cried or were moved. I love that. Usually people have a nice mixture of feelings to report after a show, they will say they laughed so hard but that it was smart too and touching or that they felt inspired. Often they will share their fave gay history tid-bits which is cool. It gets people excited I think, the piece has a lot of energy, it’s is a real ride.

Ian: Oh yeah Highways has been a great supporter of my work.  I spent years developing pieces there. It’s such a great space and so open and nurturing of queer artists. I began Queer Mondays there three years ago because I think it is so important for LGBT artists to have safe and consistent place to create work. The world is so full to the brim with heteronormativity, it’s overwhelming and it influences us. We need our own place to understand what it means to be gay or queer and feel safe and strong in that. Gay liberation is far from over.

Sometimes I wake up at night to worry about things that would be useless to scrawl on the pad of paper I keep on the nightstand for the purpose of storing racing thoughts. In these frantic moments I begin to worry about archiving. I worry that our letters, diaries, and hand drawn protest flyers will end up in moldy dumpsters at estate sales and that these beautiful snapshots of our queer histories will be forever lost. I worry about the little gaybies in Iowa who are praying for God to take their gay away. I worry that they won’t get to see Ian MacKinnon’s Gay Hist-Orgy and I worry that Ian’s manuscript will end up in a mildewy pile and that the performance and those stories will die when the art fags of  my generation take our last breaths and so I ask Ian very casually if he’s been recording the performances. What will become of  ”Ian MacKinnon’s Gay Hist-Orgy” when the party’s over? Ian doesn’t know he’s enabling my obsessive thinking but I’m so relieved when he tells me he’s filming the performances and that they will later be edited into a DVD. So I take a deep breath and smile and for a moment I can stop worrying because my favorite fey leatherman professor, Ian MacKinnon, will make sure the gaybies have something to be proud of for a very long time.

San Francisco Dates: 

Friday, June 22nd 9 PM @ Faetopia

In the vacant Tower Records (nxt to Cafe Flore)
at Market St & Noe St
2286 Market Street
Faetopia.com

Friday Nights
July 6, 13, 20, 27
8 PM
Moving Arts Hyperion Station, 1822 Hyperion Ave, 90027Price: $20 / $15 students
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/214106
Information: gayhistorgy.com