The Life & Times of Ginger Lamar!

“I enjoy the audiences. I just love being with people, young and old,” stated Lamar. “I like the rapport with the audience, the back and forth of it all. You know, I have been doing this for more than 40 years, but I do not feel like the celebrity that others treat me like. I have never thought about it that way because I just don’t see myself as that important.”

However, many throughout Oklahoma City’s LGBT community would disagree. Her importance was most recently recognized in June when she was the grand marshal of the annual Pride parade, an event that drew thousands to the area, and concluded in front of Lamar’s current stomping grounds, The Boom.

On most weekends you can find Lamar doing what she does best on The Boom’s stage. It takes her approximately two hours to get ready for a performance and most of her outfits are tailor made…by her husband, Jay.

“I didn’t do drag at first, but then I got Jay to make me a dress. He does beautiful work. It’s a job so he doesn’t mind that I do it at all either,” Lamar stated. “We have been together for 36 years and we enjoy being with each other. We still live in the same house Jay bought in 1967. He only works six months out of the year and I quit doing hair years ago. Mostly, we go to the theater or out with friends, sometimes we just like to spend time with each other in our courtyard or simply watching television. I enjoy his company.”

But settling down isn’t for everyone, according to Lamar, especially if you are young. Sometimes you just need to have fun.

“When you’re young, you get bored in a relationship. The thing to remember is that you don’t need to be in a relationship if you don’t want to be in one,” stated Lamar. “You have to have fun, be young! Don’t ever settle for anything and just wait until your ready to make that commitment like I did. Eventually, the right person will come along.”

Lamar also identifies with the young LGBT crowd and the problems the community faces as a whole today. According to Lamar, it is the same, but different, issues facing today’s youth.

“Things change, but they don’t, you know? I’m aware of what they go through, but at the same time I can’t tell them anything,” Lamar stated. “I love the young ones; they are so cute! And, I do remember what it was like to be young! I just want to make sure that they practice safe sex. I am the only one still alive from a cast of six who performed together in the eighties. Aids was so scary, horrid, and awful during that time; we were all afraid. Today’s youth doesn’t have to be afraid, they can be safe and have fun too. If I can save one person by preaching safe sex, it’s worth it. If I can make a difference, why shouldn’t I?”

But there is one thing that the LGBT youth of today say that makes Lamar cringe.

“I hate the word ‘queer.’ I fought that term for so long to get rid of it and I just can’t stand it. It infers that we are not equal and it infuriates me,” stated Lamar. “I just feel it is so degrading and I cringe when I hear it, but I do understand the use of it. It is just a young people thing to do.”

And a lot has changed in Oklahoma City since Lamar fought the term ‘queer’ and for the right to have a public bar where same sex couples could legally dance.

“I like this area, I like Oklahoma City. Gay life is so much better here and especially better than it used to be years ago,” Lamar stated. “There are not near as many problems like we used to face. The city itself is better and so is the downtown area. There are so many different types of media for gays now. It would have been nice to have stuff like that out there when I was coming up.

“The businesses on ‘the strip’ are still all grouped together but I wish there was more unity among them. That is one thing that hasn’t changed. The clubs here don’t work together toward one goal, they each do different things. Tulsa is really good about it; one bar will have advertisements for an event in another bar. They work together to promote. Even if the clubs don’t all get along, I feel they should come together for something.”

Bringing the community together is something with which Lamar is familiar. She enjoys gathering all the different faces of the LGBT crowd into one place for a little unified laughter…even if it is for only one evening. Part of the audience’s raucous fun comes in the form of Lamar’s famous one-liners.

“Today’s beauty is tomorrow’s troll. That’s one little bit of advice I love to hand out! I like working the crowd during a performance,” stated Lamar. “One time I had a young lady talking on her cell phone while I was performing, which was very rude. I snagged the phone out of her hand and started talking to the other person on the line – it was her mother. I told her that her daughter was going to have to call her back later. It was a hoot!

“And while I work the crowd a lot, feeding off the back and forth of it all, everyone needs to know that I never make fun of anyone else more than I make fun of myself! I love it when people come up to me too. There is never a need to be afraid of me, just come up to me and talk because I love what I do! You know, I’ve been in the business longer than any of the club owners have. I don’t want to be here when I’m 100, but I’m still having fun right now. Retirement is definitely not in my future now, but maybe in a few years!”