Newly out comedian Todd Glass gets serious (Part 2 of 2)

By Drew Wilson

Todd Glass has been doing stand up for 25 years and appeared on both the second and third seasons of "Last Comic Standing." 

 

He came out publicly only a few months ago, on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron in response to recent headlines about the bullying and subsequent suicides of gay youth across the country, and now Glass will be appearing at Comedy Works South at The Landmark Friday, May 18 and Saturday, May 19. I had a chance to chat with the comedian about some pretty serious subjects including his passion for equality, his coming out process, and how homophobia hurts us all. 

Here's part two of our interview

Has coming out impacted your career?

I don’t want people coming to see me because I’m gay, I want them to come see me because I’m funny. But if they hear about me because of an interview like this one - which I wouldn’t have done before I came out, by the way - that’s fine. I actually haven’t started to talk about it in my act yet but I'm sure I will eventually because I’m a comic and it’s part of my life but I think it will be a process.

And what's your message for people who are homophobic?

If you’re homophobic, you better do some soul-searching and make damn sure that you’re right because if you aren’t, you're causing a lot of people pain and damage. If you’re homophobic just be 100 percent positive about it because if you’re not, you can right a book in ten years about how wrong you were but you’ve already caused so many people pain or even caused people to kill themselves ... I mean, let's not delude ourselves. I don’t think I’m being over the top to say that if you are being homophobic and you preach that being gay is a sickness or an illness then you are part of children taking their own lives. You can talk around it, dance around it or try to come up with something in your head that tells you that what I’m saying isn’t true, but you’ll be fucking wrong.

People always try to look for arguments or loopholes in that argument. A person who is homophobic will read this and instantly try to figure out how I’m wrong. In history, we’ve always tried to find loopholes around equality. But equality means that everybody should be treated equally. That’s what it means. It’s not complicated. Learn from history. Every single time we don’t give people rights we look back in hindsight and we can see that it was wrong. It’s gonna be the same thing with this. Don’t delude yourself.

And by the way, in the history of ever granting people rights, there’s not one case where, as a society, we look back and say, 'Oh, it was wrong to give those people rights'. We just look back with nausea and embarrassment. Now we’re living through another one of those times and after this there will be something else.

Gay Pride Month (June) is coming up and with it, all the usual Pride celebrations and parades. Will you be doing differently to celebrate gay pride now that you're out?

I don’t go to any parades. I don’t like parades. But, and I hope this comes out right, the way I lived my life was that, even when I was in the closet, I never said anything homophobic to hide who I was. I’ve always spoken with clarity that every person on this planet deserves peace and harmony. I almost feel like I’d like to do away with the gay flag and make it bigger because it's like we take one plight at a time. Instead of taking one plight at a time why don’t we just have a flag that say,  “Leave everybody the fuck alone!” 

If they're not hurting another human being, just leave people alone. I mean, there are gay people who are racist, there are black people who are homophobic, straight women who are homophobic and it’s maddening to me because you would think people could learn from what they or their people have gone through. Anybody who’s ever been a victim of being judged for something other than their actions on a daily basis and then proceeds to do that to another group, what they’re basically saying is 'No, we were persecuted for the wrong reason and you’re persecuted for the right reason.' It's not right. And it’s not complicated. I learned a long time ago that you can’t argue with someone who says that two plus two equals seven. You can’t agree to disagree with someone like that. Sometimes in life there is right and there is wrong. Anybody who says a gay person is anything other than healthy or fine, well, I know I'm repeating myself but just don’t ever let somebody who isn’t healthy and isn’t fine make you live in distress. You are healthy and you are fine. Two plus two equals four and that’s just the fucking way it is!

I can dig it. And what's your final message to readers of MileHighGayGuy.com?

Just go out there and be a decent human being, alright?

Todd Glass will be appearing at Comedy Works South at The Landmark on May 17-19. Click here for tickets or more information.