He’s not
“family,” but Emmy-winning Family Guy and
American Dad creator Seth MacFarlane consistently
packs his irreverent animated sitcoms with queer gags
and subplots, even devoting entire episodes to hot-button
gay issues such as marriage and adoption rights. With
his sexy baritone (similar to Family Guy’s
alcoholic dog Brian, just one of the many colorful
characters he voices himself), the 34-year-old devoted
Democrat drew us in to discuss what makes
homosexuality so damn funny, and—step aside,
Dumbledore—out one of his most popular characters as
“almost certainly gay.”
I hope you’re prepared for my very gay line of questioning.
I spent half the holidays with my gay cousin, so
I think I’m good to go.
How did your cousin inform your views on homosexuality?
We went to see him in a show when he was in high school
or college, and I remember my parents talking about
the fact that he might be gay and just doesn’t
know it yet. It turned out that they were right. With
certain parts of our family, it was taken for
granted—“Oh, he’s
gay”—and we didn’t think any more
of it. Other parts of the family were, at times, less
enlightened about it. At one point somebody said,
“Maybe there’s a way for him to be
cured,” which was fucking horrifying to hear from
somebody that you love. But I credit my parents for raising
me to be a logical person. I went to a very
conservative boarding school called Kent with a lot of
Republican students from very wealthy families, and a lot
of times that does come with an unfortunate amount of
negative traditionalism. I certainly remember hearing
students use the word “fag” and whatnot,
but it didn’t really register with me just because I
hadn’t been directly exposed to any openly gay
people yet. But then when I was, it was nice to find
out that my brain was already set up the right way, so
I didn’t give a shit.
Were you ever mistaken for gay, perhaps due in part
to your longtime love of musical theater?
Oh God, yeah. Big deal.
Did that ever cramp your style romantically?
No. If anything, it would’ve helped. Hot chicks
love gay guys.
What inspired Family Guy’s season 4 gay marriage
episode “You May Now Kiss
the…Uh…Guy Who Receives,” in which
Brian’s flamboyant cousin Jasper visits
with his Filipino boyfriend?
A couple of years prior I had teamed up to write a pilot
with two writers, both of whom were gay. One of them
said that when he travels through the Midwest with his
partner they have to go through this fucking dog and
pony act when they stop at a hotel and the guy behind the
counter says, “You want one room or
two?” They have this charade where they’ll
say to each other, “Is one room OK with you?”
“Yeah, I’m cool with that if you
are.” “Yeah, no big deal, we’ll just
take one.” That was one of many conversations I
had with them where I thought to myself, Why is it
that Johnny Spaghetti Stain in fucking Georgia can knock a
woman up, legally be married to her, and then beat the
shit out of her, but these two intelligent,
sophisticated writers who have been together for 20
years can’t get married? It’s infuriating and
idiotic. I’m incredibly passionate about my
support for the gay community and what they’re
dealing with at this current point in time. I have arguments
with people where I get red in the face, screaming at
the top of my lungs.
According to DVD commentary, [your “standards and
practices” legal department] had you say that an
antigay propaganda video shown in the episode was
made by “Pat Robertson Industries” to
ensure that Fox wouldn’t be called
homophobic. Are they always so paranoid when it
comes to gay issues?
It just depends. Religion is a lot more sensitive on a
weekly basis to standards and practices than anything,
which pisses me off. I was surprised that we were
forced to add that Pat Robertson thing, because you
had this unbelievably radical antigay film—obviously
it was something we were making fun of. I thought,
Aren’t people smart enough to know better?
The Parents Television Council voted the episode,
along with many others, “Worst TV Show of the
Week.” Do you appreciate that honor?
Oh, yeah. That’s like getting hate mail from
Hitler. They’re literally terrible human
beings. I’ve read their newsletter, I’ve
visited their website, and they’re just rotten
to the core. For an organization that prides itself on
Christian values—I mean, I’m an atheist, so
what do I know?—they spend their entire day
hating people. They can all suck my dick as far as
I’m concerned.
Using the news anchor couple Greg and Terry
you’ve also tackled LGBT issues on American Dad,
most recently in the adoption episode
“Surro-Gate.” Do you think you’re
influencing viewer opinion?
I certainly hope that we’re doing a small part to
advance progress in that area. But there are some bits
that we do on Family Guy and American Dad that are
just pure comedy which I hope are not influencing
people.
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Voss is editor in
chief of HX magazine.