“You’re bringing this horrible thing to them and they shouldn’t have to hear that.”
Drag queen and stage performer Rory O’Neill, aka Panti Bliss was this week’s guest on Ireland Unfiltered with Dion Fanning.
On the show, he explained why Leo Varadkar had to send that letter to Kylie Minogue and labelled the fallout to the letter as “bullshit homophobia”.
But he also spoke to Dion about the harsh reality of his HIV diagnosis and how “horrible” it was to bring the news to his parents, but how they were amazing in their response.
Rory: People didn’t want to give you sympathy, because you’re a dirty pervert and this is just God telling ya, or whatever. So there’s all that, also nobody likes to talk to their parents about anything that is even remotely connected to icky sex stuff, it’s just weird. And then on top of that, you tell your parents that you’re dying is – like – you’re gonna make me upset here.
It’s horrible. You shouldn’t have to do that. Of course, my parents were amazing about it anyway so.
Dion: That makes it more tough in some ways, doesn’t it?
Rory: Yeah kind of. I hated that, mostly because you were hurting them. You’re bringing this horrible thing to them and they shouldn’t have to hear that.
Ireland Unfiltered, brought to you in partnership with Carlsberg Unfiltered, will be available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube every Tuesday.
