Joan Rivers and her enduring connection to gay community: ‘They were the first ones to laugh at me’

Like a lot of gays, Joan Rivers considered herself an outsider and an underdog.

But she never let that stop her. In fact, it fueled her.

From her rise to stardom in the 1960s through her final episode of Fashion Police which aired just last week, Rivers kept her legions of loyal gay fans entertained and inspired.

She told me during a chat for Gay Star News in 2012: ‘They were the first ones to laugh at me.’

Then she added, jokingly: ‘Kathy [Griffin] got the (gay fans) I don’t want. She got the ones that don’t have chic apartments.’

Rivers told The Advocate in May: ‘My gay fans have been wonderful from day one.’

‘I remember when I was working at the Duplex in Greenwich Village in New York at the beginning of my career and the only ones who would laugh at my jokes were the gay guys. I think if I had started out in straight clubs and bars I never would’ve gotten anywhere.

‘Even today, when I’m on tour I always know if I get eight gay men in the front row it’s going to be a great show. Maybe it’s just me and I know they’re going to laugh at what I’d laugh at, but when my gays are in the audience it’s always a good time.’

The connection was always strong – especially during dark times.

In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, Rivers was among the few celebrities who lent their name to raise money for research and care.

In the spring of 1984, at a time when so many were still so afraid of the disease, Rivers appeared on the cover of LA’s Frontiers Magazine promoting an AIDS fundraiser in West Hollywood that raised $45,000 for APLA, L.A. Shanti and Aid for AIDS.

She went on to serve for years on the board of the New York-based God’s Love We Deliver, a grassroots charity that provides thousands of meals to AIDS patients and now others each day. Rivers raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the charity when she won NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice.

In 2011, Rivers spoke out publicly in favor of the legalization of same-sex marriage in her native New York.

During the last summer of her life, Rivers performed two same-sex marriage ceremonies – including an impromptu one that took place at one of her book signings.