Margaret Cho Disucsses Queer Identity In Comedy

Comedian and queer icon Margaret Cho sat down with MAKERS this week for a revealing new interview in which she discusses, among other things, her experiences growing up in San Francisco during the heart of the AIDS epidemic and the way the intersections of her identity influence her comedy.

In an extremely nuanced and candid discussion, Cho, whose parents bought a gay bookstore after immigrating to America in the 1970s, highlights the ways in which being a queer woman of color gave her a voice that could face racism, homophobia and other stereotypes head on.

"Especially for me -- because I’m queer, I’m a woman of color," Cho notes, "somebody that is normally perceived as policing all the things that people say are racist or sexist or homophobic -– you can got to a more outrageous place [in comedy] because of your identity.”

Check out the clip above to watch Cho's whole interview, including a heartbreaking account of the way in which AIDS impacted the people in her life throughout her childhood and teenage years.