Published today on Medium:
Before I ever spent hour upon hour with my nose buried in the pages a Harry Potter book, there was Matilda.
I’ve always loved to read, and have hauled too-big piles of books home from the library (although not in a red wagon, I will admit) more times than I can count. Plus, what 7-year-old budding queer femme doesn’t dream of discovering a secret superpower and running away from her loneliness into a beautiful world of friendship where she can play games and eat cookies all day long? I mean, it always seemed like a pretty solid life choice to me.
Matilda has followed me ever since childhood. And I’m not necessarily talking about the Danny DeVito movie, or even the Roald Dahl book. I’m talking about Matilda herself; Matilda the person; Matilda Wormwood, the character made real by a young girl in a 98-minute-long movie I’d wager nearly every Millennial (in the U.S., at least) has seen. I’m talking about Mara Wilson.
It felt like fate that Mara and I would meet. She went to college with one of my family members and, once I moved back to New York, kept showing up at various comedy events I attended around the city. Then, in early 2017 — after coming out publicly the previous summer — she became a Lambda Legal donor. These aren’t even all the connections we’ve had over the years. But ultimately, I knew that it was only a matter of time.
So, when we sat down to talk last week, to say that I was excited might be an understatement. Little did I know just how much her own experience as a queer woman would mirror mine.
