GLASGAY!
STATE OF THE UNION This year’s Glasgay! focuses on acts of union – ‘whether they be forced, failed, loveless, romantic, personal or political, blessed or corrupt’. The List asked four individuals participating in Glasgay! 2012 to explain what the festival theme means to them
JOHN GRANT
‘I have a humorous take on equal marriage, which is just a copycat of what Dolly Parton said on it. She said, ‘Hell yeah, I think gays ought to be allowed to marry – they
should be as miserable as the rest of us.’ I like that.
I grew up in a really religious household and I know a lot of people who are very against gays having those rights. Back in the United States especially it seems like a lot of religious groups want to use the bible as the constitution of the country. They seem to believe that by using the bible, they can outlaw certain things like gay marriage, and I just think that goes against everything that they believe in too. It’s total hypocrisy because the Constitution of the United States was not supposed to be a theocracy of the United States. The reason people went over there in the i rst place was because they wanted to be able to do exactly what they wanted to do, and now there’s all these people saying, ‘Yeah, well, only groups of people should be allowed to do what they want to do, and other people shouldn’t.’ I don’t really consider myself to be very political but if you start to pay attention at all, then you are forced to become political whether you want to or not. My work is very personal, but my personal life i ts into all of those things as well. We all have access to the same emotions although we all have them in different combinations of course. If we’re honest about our experiences and we talk honestly about what we’re feeling, then there’s always going to be a lot of people who identify with that.
Interviews: Lauren Mayberry John Grant plays The Arches, Glasgow, 25 Oct.
20 Sep–18 Oct 2012 THE LIST 17