When asked who the young people are who are inspiring her, she points to Bowen Yang or Lil Nas X, who excite her with their hyper-queer art.
“It’s very gay from an Asian American perspective,” she said of Yang’s work on “Saturday Night Live.” “Talk about silenced? That has been silenced, the gay Asian experience really is unheard.”
Or Lil Nas X, whose hit single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” has been playing on repeat for her.
“I love that song and that video,” she said. “I wanted his drop of blood sneakers so bad. It’s so fabulous. Like, how fun and beautiful to embrace that and it’s just really fantastic. To me, that’s really the future, it makes me feel really young. It makes me feel really seen as a queer elder. I love that they’re feeling free and living their lives. So many of us couldn’t come out for so long and kids are like having a different time of it and I’m so proud of them for it.”
Today, Cho is dating both men and women. She’s not quite single, but definitely living alone.
“I am dating,” she said. “It’s really grown, and it’s very adult and yet, I’m very happy living alone. I think that’s really the biggest fear for a lot of people, is being alone, but I love it. You know, I think it’s really what I’ve been searching for. I have relationships that I love but it’s also really easy and it’s really adult.”
Cho said that she believes in polyamory, the practice of openly dating numerous people at the same time, and that it’s something she upholds in her relationships, but doesn’t actually happen often.
“I don’t have that kind of relationship where I can’t see other people but you slow down,” she said. “I just want things to be simpler. So yeah, I love polyamory, but it’s just so much talking and a lot of work. I can’t do it. I always end at one even though in my mind, I am poly, but I’m too, too, too busy.”
Or too lazy? She laughed and answered, “Both!”
Cho said she also wants the LGBTQ community to reclaim a controversial term used to refer to gay people: “fruit.”
“I think that’s a really good one that we need to bring back,” she said. “What are you up to fruity? I’m really fruity.”
This LGBTQ Pride Month 2021, TODAY is highlighting the LGBTQ trailblazers in pop culture who paved the way, along with the trendsetters of today who are making a name for themselves. By examining their experiences individually, we see how all of their stories are tied to one another in a timeline of queer history that takes us from where we were to where we stand today.
