Bette Midler: ‘Gay culture is too ordinary nowadays’
By Sam Rigby
Bette Midler has admitted that she misses the “extreme characters” of the gay community.
The singer – who recently released her new album It’s The Girls! – said that “a little bit of the specialness” of LGBT culture has been lost over the years.
Speaking to Advocate, she said: “The extreme characters you used to see in the Village in the old days, you just don’t see them anymore.
“I really do miss them because there was a feeling I used to get that people were expressing themselves in the most elaborate of ways. Now the [gay community] has kind of gone mainstream. It’s sort of ordinary now, and a little bit of the specialness has rubbed away.”
Midler joked: “It used to be the love that dare not speak its name and now it’s the love that won’t shut the fuck up.
“But seriously, the great thing about the gay revolution is that it has become ordinary and I’m happy to see how far it’s come and to see the community be more at peace with itself and, I want to say, more homogenised.
“Even being considered a gay icon — which was something that used to be whispered and bandied about — has become sort of mainstream, and that’s a good thing.”
Midler will play her first UK shows in 35 years next summer, when she performs in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds and London – find out more here.