Put a pop star in a photographer's studio and, typically, japes
will ensue in a dizzying swirl of loud music, outrageous poses,
feather boas and shimmery skirts. But on a darkening November
afternoon in midtown Manhattan, the Empire State Building grandly
lit outside, the mood is muted as Ana Lynch, or Ana Matronic as the
Scissor Sisters singer is known, poses statuesquely in a gorgeous
orange silk dress and silver heels, her red hair whirled into a
sleek peak. The reason for the mutedness is there on the simple
sign she is holding: "Being Lesbian Is Not A Crime."
It's not surprising she is holding the sign, related to Amnesty
International's Write For Rights campaign: the Scissor Sisters,
with their glorious mash-up of disco, electroclash, new wave and
glam-rock, were born on the Lower East Side in the early 2000s,
fully immersed in gay politics and boundary-dissolving "queer"
identity. When I remark to Lynch - who in 2010 married Seth Kirby,
her partner of nine years - that she defines herself as "bisexual",
she says: "I have, in my life and professionally, sought to blur
distinctions. I don't like identifying as gay or straight or even
bisexual. I don't necessarily like identifying as a woman. I
identify as a human being and I enjoy distinctions being taken
away. I believe in human rights. We should treat each other exactly
the same whoever we are. The rigid constructs put into place to
define us don't really work."
She laughs a gorgeous, dirty cackle. "They're not really true, so
just let's get rid of them or blur them, so we have some place to
meet in the middle." Later she'll dish about the sex and
relationships she's had with women, why women are better kissers
than men and why the Scissor Sisters, presently on an indefinite
hiatus, was a "benevolent dictatorship run by Jake Shears".
Read the rest of this interview in the January 2013
issue of DIVA.
Buy it here!
