I don’t know if it was because she had a good heart or because she wanted to be known as someone who did something radical. She wasn’t sticking to the political script of homosexuals being a threat to Christianity and democracy.Ībsolutely. It didn’t please the conservatives in power. The trailer for The Eyes of Tammy Faye gives viewers the impression that she was really going rogue with her interview with you. After that, I traveled for 12 years all over the world, and they always wanted me to show that interview at church events. It wasn’t until 1987, when the Reverend Troy Perry played the interview at a general conference for MCC and 1,000 people stood up and cheered, that I got much of a response. What was the initial response from folks to your interview? When I think about all those amazing people who were killed… There’s no rhyme or reason to it, is there? Who was empowered, who fought hard, who lived, who died, in those early years. They told me I had eight months left to live. I know! I got sick in 1982 and was diagnosed with GRID. It’s also surprising, frankly, that the person living with AIDS who did that interview in 1985 is still alive to talk about it. And then, of course, we ended up talking about Jesus a lot. She had said that “we don’t talk about Jesus” on this show. When she asked you if you had given women “a chance,” you said God loves you the way you are. You also kept bringing the topic back to your faith. She reassured me that Tammy was proud and excited to be the first to give an affirming interview to a gay man with AIDS. When did you realize it was friendly ground? It was a kick.īut it was a conservative environment. I made sure the interview went out live so they couldn’t edit it.
I was a pastor at the time with Metropolitan Community Church, and I had been speaking about living with AIDS for two years or more.
It’s ironic that the gay man they found was also a theologian and pastor. Tammy Faye Bakker interviews Steve Pieters on her show Tammy’s House Party in 1985.