I am a HUGE fan of Orange is the New Black, so when I saw that Lea DeLaria who plays Big Boo was coming to speak at our school, I freaked out. I was hoping this wouldn’t be a repeat of the Laverne Cox let down last year. But Tuesday came, and the Lea DeLaria talk had not been cancelled! I was not expecting the huge line outside of the Event Space to form over an hour before the talk began, but luckily I was leaving dinner and snagged a spot in the line. The next hour and a half of my life was entertaining and inspirational.
Lea came on stage and was really feelin’ herself because of how much the audience was applauding her. She immediately screamed, “THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME!!!! I feel like I’m at a fucking bat mitzvah”. This set the tone of how the entire talk was going to be. Lea proceeded to make every single woman in the room stand up and yell, “I AM A LESBIAN”, and naturally the men had to follow suit. We pretty much got to see Lea DeLaria do stand up comedy for free. She had the audience dying of hysterical laughter the entire time. From making fun of all of the different terms used for gay couples, such as “partners” and “lesbian lovers” to telling a hilarious story about telling off a bitchy German woman at Lohmann’s, Lea won over all of our hearts. She even broke out into two songs! The first song was making fun of “girly-girls”, and the second song was about the death of DOMA and Prop 8 and how there were still things that needed to be destroyed such as Donald Trump and pineapple on pizza. Her vocal chops, along with her scatting skills, did not fail to disappoint.
While the majority of her talk was humorous and stand-up comedy-esque, there were serious moments. Lea talked about how in the 80’s she was once brutally attacked for looking butch, and no one watching did anything to stop it. But her point was that progress has been made! She went from getting beaten up in the 80’s, to having a group of women kick a homophobic woman out of the Lohmann’s dressing room after telling her that she couldn’t be in there. Lea’s attitude about life, which is “I don’t give a fuck”, is truly inspiring. She’s someone who faces discrimination and judgment every day for simply being herself, yet she still kicks ass and doesn’t let the haters get her down.
She finished her talk by opening up for questions. Naturally, I went up and asked a question because I had the dying urge to know what Lea had against pineapple on pizza!! I agreed with everything else she wanted to abolish in this world, but I am very passionate about pineapple on my pizza. Of course, her response was awesome. She yelled at me saying, “Why do I hate pineapple on pizza?! BECAUSE I’M FUCKING SICILIAN. PIZZA IS FROM ITALY. PINEAPPLE IS FROM HAWAII.” Point taken…I’m still going to eat pineapple on my pizza, though….sorry Big Boo.