Wading into territory like this is tricky, as a joke of this nature can easily feel like it’s trading on tired gay panic tropes. What would Leonard Bernstein do?” I never talked to my dad about that, but I figured I’d tell all of you. How would that ever work? Like, years later, I’d be in college, about to go down on some rockin’ twink and I’d be like, “Wait a second. I don’t know if he was discouraging me from being gay or encouraging me to be a classical composer, but that is how he thought to phrase it to a 12-year-old boy. And according to a biography I read of him, when he was holding back the gay part, he did some of his best work.” Now, we don’t have time to unpack all of that. Hello, I’m Chip Mulaney, your father.” And he said the following: “You know Leonard Bernstein was one of the great composers and conductors of the 20th century, but sometimes, he would be gay. I was like 12 years old and my dad walked up to me and he said, “Hello.
