Roger-Luc Chayer
Victoria Price is the daughter and heiress of actor Vincent Price. She is a professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and gives lectures around the world. She is also a minister and openly homosexual.
Victoria, your father has dedicated some of his notoriety to talking about AIDS at the very beginning of the epidemic. In your opinion, what was his motivation? My dad and my mother-in-law had a lot of gay friends – and many of them and their friends were dying in the 1980s and 1990s. It was a horrible time – and the fear of AIDS and how he could be contracted was great. When he was approached to make a PSA to respond to the fear of AIDS, he immediately agreed. My mother-in-law was also active in her own way, bringing food to bed-ridden people and helping them survive.
According to Wikipedia, in a 2015 interview, you stated that your father was bisexual. Has this fact influenced his career and sparked his openness to LGBT communities? In all honesty, I did not know that my father would have been called bisexual, because I think he approached sexuality much more like the younger generations of today. He knew who to love and how he loved – and how sexual love was probably less interesting to him than what connected his heart to others. I think my father would have really identified with today’s young generation who is resistant to labels and adopts a much more fluid idea of gender and sexuality. In fact, I think that’s how my father lived his life.
In everyday life, your parents seemed to like you a lot. Describe how he enjoyed living at home, away from work and your best memories with both parents. Our best moments together were traveling. My father was passionate about learning the world and sharing knowledge with others, including myself. My mother loved to travel too. So, it was our happiest moments. And another source of joy for my dad and I was to have adventures like riding a roller coaster or going fishing. He was infinitely curious and he taught me that curiosity would keep life interesting forever!
You yourself are a wonderful inspiring example of people from LGBT communities. You came out in the 80s, how did it go? What were their reactions to you? When I talked to my mother in 1984, it did not work at all. Although she had a lot of gay friends that I knew and loved very much growing up, she considered my « choice » as a negative reflection on her role as a parent. She was terrified, hurt and angry. We did not speak for about three years. She warned me not to tell my father about it. But when I did it a few years later, he loved and accepted – just like my mother-in-law. My dad joined PFLAG’s Honorary Advisory Board and he said he had always understood the deep connections between same-sex / gender people. Curiously, however, I have never been completely comfortable identifying myself as a lesbian. I never thought that sexuality was essential enough to my being. However, with the extension of the rainbow LGBTQAI +, I finally understood that it included me. For several years, I identified myself as a bi spirit, but even that ended up seeming restrictive. I guess if I had to choose the initials on the rainbow spectrum, it would be Q and T. I like the recovery of the Queer word as a celebration of our differences (and how these differences can bring us closer), as I love them. The recovery of the word Monster by horror fans who are called Monster Kids. Although I do not like horror movies, I now know that I am a Monster Kid. And my T means True. So, I guess for the moment I could be QMT, a monstrous child who tries to stay true to his heart as he travels around the world seeing every person she meets exist somewhere in the spectrum of the world. Rainbow of Love.
2019, since the death of your father and the evolution of the LGBT condition, how do you think your father would react to gay marriage, adoption, equal rights and new gentrification among youth? I think my father would have considered marriage and gay adoption as a civil rights issue. I think he would have been grateful for anything that could make people feel less marginalized and criminalized. Do not forget that my father played Oscar Wilde for five years around the world. Every night he was talking about what had happened to Wilde for loving a man and defending the company with clarity. So, anything that decriminalizes Love and allows people to be true to their hearts would have been applauded!
On your side, your coming out seems to have been a source of emancipation. Do you have any advice to give to younger people on how to proceed? My advice would be to listen to your heart and not your peers or your parents. Your heart knows who you are and how you love. The challenge is not to try to integrate your love into the company box. And the even bigger challenge is not to doubt yourself if your love does not look like your parents or peers think it should be. It is difficult not to feel in your place. Try to remember this: there are no labels for Love. It is the nature of love itself. Your heart knows who you are, you must now learn to help stop listening to what others tell you to be. If you hear the words « should be », stop listening! Practice listening to your heart and trusting it. And know that when you know it, whether you know it or not, you will help someone else learn to listen to his heart. More than anything, it’s what our world needs: it needs us to live the Love.
Thank you Victoria Price for your generosity and your friendship!