Actress Cassandra Peterson has been a sex symbol since she first began portraying the high-femme horror hostess Elvira in the 1980s. Which is why the cleavage-forward queen of the macabre knew that some fans would be more accepting of her recent coming out revelation than others.
In September, Peterson publicly came out in her new memoir Yours Cruelly, sharing that she has been in a relationship with Teresa “T” Wierson for nearly 20 years.
“Nobody was ready for that,” Peterson said in an episode of the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast released today. “And apparently we kept it a pretty damn good secret because nobody knew — and everybody was surprised.”
But even though the Mistress of the Dark received a warm reception from her own social circles, some straight Elvira fans reacted poorly to the news.
“The straight people, I knew that there was going to be some horny old men out there who were just not going to like the fact that they didn’t have a chance with me anymore,” Peterson told Yontef, laughing.
“And I hate to tell them they already didn’t have a chance of me anyway,” she continued, demonstrating her mastery of camp savagery.
Peterson went on to reveal that the day headlines began circulating about her sexuality, she lost some 11,000 followers on an unnamed social media platform. “People just said, ‘Elvira, you lied to me. I don’t respect you anymore. Goodbye,’” she recalled.
However, the same day, she also gained 60,000 new followers — proof that her coming out has attracted ample new fans to replace the haters.
“It was funny,” Peterson shared. “I know it was mostly straight older guys who just felt lied to. I don’t know. Can’t please everybody!”
As Peterson has previously expressed in interviews, she was much more concerned about how LGBTQ+ fans would receive her, worrying that they might feel betrayed because she waited until now to come out.
“Honestly, I worried more about my gay fan base,” she said on the podcast when Yontef asked which segment of her audience she was more concerned about. “Because I hope they embraced it, but I was feeling like, ‘What if they think I’m a big fat hypocrite and I was lying to them?’”
She need not have worried, as news of her coming out has been a bright spot during otherwise shadowy times. There has always been a queer appeal to Elivra’s over-the-top hypersexuality and her unquenchable appetite for all things twisted.
Peterson opening up on her own terms serves as an empowering example all on its own. “At this point in my life, I’ve got to be truthful about who I am,” she writes in her memoir Yours Cruelly.
What’s that saying they have down below? Oh, right: hell, yes!
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