Sexion Q_25

Tammy Faye Goes
Her Own Way
One-Woman Show Brings Her
Message of Love to Miami
By Mary Damiano
When it comes to Tammy Faye, what
you see is what you get. But if you only see
makeup, you’re not looking hard enough.
“People think I’m all make-up and
giggles and I’m not that at all. That’s just a
part of me,” she says.
Tammy Faye will show people in Miami
that there’s a lot underneath that trademark
makeup when she brings her one-woman
show, which features lots of singing and lots
of honesty, to the Jackie Gleason Theatre of
the Performing Arts Saturday, January 26.
Tammy Faye Bakker Messner is an
unusual combination of child and woman.
She’s deeply spiritual and wise about life,
yet she retains a childlike innocence and
wonder. She says she likes filmmaker John
Waters as a person, but was shocked by his
“filthy” language. “I had never heard those
words put together before,” Tammy Faye
says.
She gets choked up when reading an email praising her show from a fan named
Daniel who has AIDS, who tells her how much
the show meant to him and asks her to pray
for him. “It’s those kinds of things that make
me do one more show,” Tammy Faye says.
No one is more surprised by the show
than Tammy Faye. She and her husband, Roe
Messner, had moved from Palm Springs,
settling in Charlotte, North Carolina, so
Tammy Faye could be closer to her two
grandchildren.
“I wanted them to know me more than
just somebody they read about in the
newspaper or saw occasionally on
television,” she says.
A close friend, Joe Spotts, encouraged
Tammy Faye to do the one-woman
autobiographical show, saying she had a gift
she needed to share with the world and that
it was time for her to get busy. Tammy Faye
was hesitant, but was impressed and flattered
by Spotts’ insistence. “I think he believes
more in me than I believe in me,” she says.
She’s done only one show so far, at the
Q14
www.ExpressGayNews.com • January 14th, 2002
Castro Theatre in San Francisco. “I felt like I
was amongst people who were very safe,
nonjudgmental, because it was the gay
community I was going to be with, and I love
them and they seem to love me
unconditionally, as I love them,” she says.
“We had a wonderful time with the audience
there. It was totally packed and we just had a
great time.”
Though the producers of the show want
to do a nationwide tour, Tammy Faye is taking
it slow. “I’m still tiptoeing through the water,
wading out to see how deep I go,” she laughs.
“I’m not sure I’m a very entertaining person,
and I don’t know what draws people to what
I do, and that’s scary.”
The show at the Castro was a smash.
Based on the success of the Castro show,
Spotts suggested they try Miami. Though
Tammy Faye has never been to Miami, she
knew of the diverse culture and decided to
give it a shot.
“I’m a fun person. I really believe that in
this day we’re living in we need real joy in
our hearts and I hope to bring joy, I hope to
bring hope to those who feel they have no
more hope,” Tammy Faye says. “So many
people today have AIDS and they’re hurting
in their bodies, so many people today are
discouraged over the things that have
happened in our nation, and I just believe
that there is always hope, where there’s life
there’s hope.”
One reason Tammy Faye is such a hit in
the gay community is that she has never
condemned gay people the way some socalled Christians and evangelists have.
Instead, she has always embraced everyone
by practicing what she preaches—love and
acceptance.
“I think that’s how Jesus was,” she says.
“Jesus loved everyone and he didn’t make
any distinction. It’s people who make
distinction. It’s not God, and I believe Jesus
loved everyone. And I believe that’s where
he would have been, he would have with
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