Henry Rollins still stands for his LGBT fans' rights

Handsome Henry Rollins is a bit of an anachronism. He's known for being an angry punk legend, but just a few minutes with him shows that he is both fiercely intelligent and very charming. He first came to international attention as front man of the punk band Black Flag in the early 1980s. Thenâ┚¬â€as he does todayâ┚¬â€this straight ally revered his LGBT fans, people he knew through his growing up in D.C. and his early days onstage, loudly speaking out for equality.

â┚¬Å”In the music scene, and in my family life beforehand, there were always gay people,â┚¬Â says the well muscled, chiseled 51-year-old.

Rollins went on to start The Rollins Band and discovered a latent talent for storytelling, wry observation, and the occasional colorful and entertaining rant. Having sworn off music in 2006, Rollins brings his â┚¬Å”talking tourâ┚¬Â back to Florida after a two-year trip touring Middle Eastern USOs, Europe and other places across the globe.

The fierce and furious Rollins drops his first shocker just a few minutes into the interview: â┚¬Å”I've always wanted things to change quickly, but I have become more aware recently how things take time.â┚¬Â

Rollins has always been appreciative of his LGBT fans. He became a strong activist in the early 1990s. This he does, along with fighting for the end of the Middle Eastern wars, working to free people unjustly accused, publishing his new photography, and the occasional actingâ┚¬â€most notably two seasons on the highly acclaimed FX series Sons of Anarchy.

He's performing at the House of Blues in Orlando March 8 and at the Capitol Theater in Clearwater March 10.

WATERMARK: The last time we talkedâ┚¬â€in early 2010â┚¬â€you were a bit angry about Obama's first few months in office.
HENRY ROLLINS: Yeah, he went in there a peacekeeper, but the Republicans were intentâ┚¬â€and they're still intentâ┚¬â€on just wrecking the place: him and everything around him. Maybe after four years, they expect that they can point fingers and say, â┚¬Å”Look what he did to the office,â┚¬Â but I don't think the American people are that stupid to buy that.

I'm impatient, and I want a Hollywood ending all the time. Some of the things the President does, I don't get, but I trust him. He's not maybe as liberal as I like, but he's a much better choice than McCain was. I now quite admire how the President has tried to bring about change in a careful way.

The truth is that Obama is a very strong incumbent, and the Republicans are saving up their big guns for 2016, and they very well may take the office for 4 to 12 years.

These guys know they're going to lose to Obama, and they're just stirring things up. And they do a good job with people like my 84-year-old dad, who thinks more homosexuals in the population means the empire is falling. But then again, my old man is a psycho.

So, none of the Republicans impress you?
Santorum has got the mic right now, but the less he spoke, the better off he'd be. Every time he opens his mouth, I think, â┚¬Å”Wow, you're insane!â┚¬Â I'm not religious, but I don't mind if someone else is. However, Santorum: a man that's that obsessed with gay people has got some issues to work through. Maybe he needs to go into Craigslist or something. I think he's a conflicted, very troubled person.

I think Santorum is going to go downâ┚¬â€especially on the birth control issueâ┚¬â€and it'll be Romney for the nomination. Although Max Headroom would probably be a livelier candidate than Romney. Romney is also a weird dude.

Gingrich: I wrote a thing on him for Australian Rolling Stone, and I said, â┚¬Å”Newt Gingrich, ex-speaker of the House, was charged with 84 ethics violations. All but one were dropped, but he was ordered to pay approximately $300,000 to help pay for the investigations. Basically, he was sent to the woods and told to find a stick to beat someone's ass with, and then he was smacked with it. Oh, and then in 1998, he stepped down from his position in shame and left politics for a cash-packed life in the private sector. Gingrich also distinguishes himself by being one of President Clinton's most vocal critics of his affair with Monica Lewinsky while he himself was cheating on his wife with another woman. He later blamed his infidelity on overwork and love for his country. Yep. Newt Gingrich never seems to be more than a few feet from his newest wife, the curious looking Calista. If you see any photograph of this woman, her hair seems to be a perfect helmet of hairspray and steel reinforcements. It is however, her expression that will catch you most. At first, second, or however many glances you dare to make, she appears to be a woman on sedatives and antidepressants. Hers is the face of a woman who has seen Newt naked when he is in the mood for lovin'. Just writing that sentence has caused my abdominal muscles to smash together. Yet, this mean doughboy wants to be my president.'â┚¬Â

I'm interested in your new understanding of change and time. Has this viewpoint affected your activism on the wars?
I wish the President had the same opinion of Afghanistan that I do. Everyone who's ever tried to take over that country has had to leave.

Afghanistan for centuries repels invaders, and I wish the President understood that. We can go home in a box or in economy class, and it's our choice. I helped finance a great documentary called Reconsider Afghanistan. I wish everyone took 40 minutes to watch. I want us out.

It took time, but Don't Ask Don't Tell was finally repealed.
I still think he should have repealed it by lunch on Day One. I bet Obama wanted it sooner, but I bet those kind of things are not as easy as just snapping your fingers. There were probably a lot of generals asking the President to take his time. He might have said, â┚¬Å”Okay, maybe there are some things I don't understand,â┚¬Â but he did get around to it. And I still believe that maybe a majority of the actual troops did not give a goddamn. As Goldwater said, â┚¬Å”I don't care if a soldier is gay or straight, as long as he can shoot straight.â┚¬Â

You've talked with a lot of soldiers.
Yeah, and I think there are only two things they're concerned with each day. One is not getting blown up. Two is where the food is. That's life in the theater of war, and it's a very apolitical situation.

It's like this whole fixation on the female soldier. I think that this is its own form of misogyny. The ovary-carrying human can do a soldier's job just as good as any other human. Female soldiers are just like their male counterparts, concerned with getting the task done; it's these misogynistic menâ┚¬â€a lot of them, like Santorum, have never been in battleâ┚¬â€who worry for them. And I think the men do this because they fear vagina. Me, I've always been appreciative of the vaginas I've been in close contact with, but other men fear them.

Back to the subject of change, since we last talked, a lot more statesâ┚¬â€including Iowaâ┚¬â€have gay marriage.
Yeah, that's great coming out of a place like Iowa. You might have thought it would happen before Iowa in places like Washington State or in Ben-and-Jerry's Vermont. But it didn't. So, it's encouraging that Iowa was one of the first. I think most people don't care who's marrying who, as long as we, as they say, leave the kids and dogs out of it. That's another great change that's just taking time.

I love that when you see some old farmer who looks like he might be a homophobe, but then he comes out and says, â┚¬Å”I don't care.â┚¬Â

Have you been affected by the upturn in gay suicides?
It's a thing that troubles me a great deal due to youth teasing, hazing and the like. It drops me. With all the online tweeting and Facebook, young people have so much more pressure on them, on their reputations, than when you and I were kids. That's whyâ┚¬â€in my own small wayâ┚¬â€when young people write me, I always write them back, to validate that young voice. I wish I could do more. It takes a lot of my time, but I will get up every day, and the letters come inâ┚¬â€it's like grass that grows and I mow it. And then it grows again and I mow it. Every day there are more emails. But I write back to every one, because it's one small thing I can do.

I think your decades of being outspoken and supporting the LGBT community wouldn't really be considered a small thing, especially with you coming out of the punk rock arena.
Thank you. I want us to get to the point where it doesn't matter. Really, your orientation is as interesting to me as laundry. The only one orientation I'm interested in is my girlfriend's. Other than that, rumble, young man, rumble; do your thing. Be yourself; life is short.