“Some people are blind or ignorant, and you can’t be that prejudiced and hateful and go through this world and still be happy. It’s all right to be who you are.”— Dolly Parton, dispelling lesbian rumors in AARP Magazine (yes, really). (via girlfriendisahomo)
I just want to add from my employing publication’s interview with her last May (I wasn’t lucky enough to do the interview, but I did get to contribute questions):
TOC: You seem really comfortable with your gay fans. On your live-concert CD, Live and Well, you say the drag queens in the audience look more like you than you do.
Dolly Parton: Oh, they do sometimes. I have a huge gay following, and I love ’em. In fact, I’m gonna do a dance record, and one of my favorite ones I ever wrote is called “Just a Wee Bit Gay.” It is so funny and so cute, and my gay fans are gonna love me for it.
TOC: The Tennessee mountains aren’t exactly a haven for sexual outsiders. Where do your views on sexuality come from?
Dolly Parton: Well, that comes from me being an oddball myself and people persecuting me for being who I was. I used to get my ass whipped all the time for wearing makeup or wearing my clothes too tight.
TOC: As a kid?
Dolly Parton: As a child, yeah, in a religious family. But I just was different. I think that everybody belongs to God and to themselves, and it’s a sin not to be who you are.
