Jun 13, 2008  |  By: ZACK ROSEN  | COMMENTS     

Gay Pride has come a long way, and so has Bruce Vilanch.

The 33rd incarnation of Capital Pride will boast comedy writer Vilanch as the parade’s grand marshal, or, in his words, its grand “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.” Vilanch became a fixture in the entertainment world after being featured as the subject of the 1999 documentary “Get Bruce,” appearing on “Hollywood Squares” and working in behind-the-scenes roles as a writer.

He was approached by the Capital Pride committee to take the position of grand marshal, but it’s far from his first experience at Capital Pride. (He recalls being onstage several years ago with Tammy Faye Messner and Lady Bunny, an experience that made for a memorable photo opportunity.)

Grand marshal is an honorary title, which means that Vilanch will not be performing or speaking. Though he says he will “Do whatever they ask me to do, although my tap dancing isn’t great right now,” his role in the parade will mostly involve waving from a car.

Washington is no stranger to visits from the mop-headed king of comedy. He was recently in town for the PFLAG annual fundraising dinner.

“Any bar I go to [in D.C.] I have the longest hair in the room,” Vilanch says. “There are a lot of close-cropped people in government jobs, a lot of J. Crew. The interesting thing about D.C. is the contrast between all of that and the weenie waggers on O Street, the guys jumping on the bar and tea-bagging you. Now all that’s gone for a baseball stadium. The lesbians have won.”

VILANCH WAS MOST recently seen on VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club,” but his career began long before that. Born in New York in 1948, his first break came in 1970 when Bette Midler hired him to write jokes for her stage act. Vilanch went on to write for a number of variety shows and provided material for comedians like Richard Pryor and Lily Tomlin. But he’s most esteemed as a writer of awards shows. He began writing for the Academy Awards in 1989 and became head writer in 2000, garnering two Emmys in the process. 

An out-and-proud gay icon, Vilanch has always been upfront about who he is.

“I’ve always been out, but I didn’t know that you could be in. I’m old enough that people didn’t declare themselves out, it wasn’t a public statement, everything was under wraps. I never hid, but it was because I was in a business where I could be as eccentric and flamboyant as I wanted to be and it was encouraged. Everyone around me knew.”

The best venue for flamboyance, of course, is a Pride celebration and Vilanch has attended plenty of them. His first was on Christopher Street in West Hollywood, which he describes as “a lot of people getting together and buying cock rings and rainbow pins and getting drunk and throwing up.”

When asked what his favorite Pride memory is, Vilanch says, “If you remember Pride, you weren’t there. It’s a high, old celebration.”

But he did recall one significant memory of Palm Springs Pride.

“There are always right-wing fundamentalists who scream things like ‘God hates fags.’ It’s such a joke now that they mingle with the gay people. They put on this empty show and I notice that there are fewer of them every year. They can’t work it up anymore.”

SOME BELIEVE THAT Pride has lost its connection to activism. In past years, the event was a political one, often used to protest discrimination or to boost AIDS awareness. It now exists largely as a party.

Vilanch counters that Pride will never be fully stripped of politics and points out that there were always moments of levity to balance out the more serious elements, like a show by a drag queen following a speech by gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank.

“It has always been a celebration. For a lot of people it’s an excuse to party like crazy and be as nuts as they can. As the community has gotten more visibility, there are elements that are embarrassed by all the Mardi Gras carrying on, but there’s a lot of stuff that’s not Mardi Gras, a lot about self-affirmation. The most important thing we can do as gay people is be visible, warts and all. Straight people go out and get drunk, ...