You have probably seen his outrageous characters and heard his unique way with words on TV shows like Dharma and Greg, Tinseltown, Touched By an Angel, and Queer as Folk. His films Daddy’s Dyin Who’s Got the Will and Sordid Lives have a cult following of millions around the world. A courageous and outspoken activist for the gay community, playwright, performer, producer, and director Del Shores will soon be bringing his witty, challenging, and unapologetic view of the world to this year’s Calgary Pride Festival from August 29th to 31st.

In addition to leading the parade down Stephen Avenue, as Grand Marshal on August 31st, Shores will be performing his deeply personal, politically charged, and very funny one man show, Del Shores: My Sordid Life, and hosting a one-night-only film screening of his award winning 2013 film, Southern Baptist Sissies, starring Willam Belli, Emerson Collins, Dale Dickey, and Leslie Jordan.

Shores sat down with us this week for an extremely candid interview to talk about the real people and places that inspire his outrageous characters, his community activism, why he says we should embrace our damage and use it for good, and how the recurring theme of religion throughout his work is meant to challenge the establishment, open the minds of the intolerant, and, especially, to let young people know they aren’t alone.

GC: So you know you are the very first American that Calgary has invited to come lead their Pride Parade; how do you feel about that?

DS: Well, very honoured. I have to say I was really very shocked. I was asking myself do people really know who I am up there? Of course I was just so happy when I got that... I’m thrilled to return to Canada. You know I worked in Toronto for three years on Queer As Folk. I love Canadians!

GC: Del, I have been following you on social media all summer and it seems like you have hosted every Pride event known to man, and woman, this season. How do you feel about the criticism that they are just an excuse for a big party?

DS: Well, I’ll say this: I’m already booking for next year’s Prides if that says anything. I actually love playing the Pride shows, and my shows do really well with those audiences. They are my favorites. It’s everybody coming together for celebration and everyone always seems to just want to have a good time. There is nothing wrong with that.

GC: Across your body of work there is a theme that resonates related to your religious upbringing, and you call it ‘embracing your damage’, and I love that. At what point did you come to terms with this idea, or has it always been a part of your creative life?

DS: Early in my career when I wrote the original play of Daddy’s Dyin Who’s Got the Will I was a little removed from the story. Those characters were based on my mother’s family and, of course, mine too, but I was more of an observer. Whereas, when I wrote Sordid Lives, is when I came out to my wife and daughters and I really started delving into my own psychology, having lots of therapy. That is when I decided to embrace who I am, and talk about it, and tell those stories. Latrelle is homage to my own mom and how she handled me coming out.

Then I think I took it even a step further with Southern Baptist Sissies, which is based on my own experience as a young man, and now, in my directing, I’m always saying to my actors scratch deeper, scratch deeper. Go to the core of your damage because that is what will give you an authentic performance, and the character becomes complete that way. And Jimmy you are absolutely right! It has become my mantra. Don’t run away from your damage, attack it and own it.

GC: So this theme of religion, specifically your views on Christianity, that runs through your work is something a lot of LGBT people around the world struggle with. As the son of a Southern Baptist minister who grew up in small town (Winters, Texas), how have your thoughts on the issue evolved, and how does it influence your work?

DS:  It continues to be a recurring theme in my work because it doesn’t seem to go away. I have somehow become the spokesperson for the gay community, attacking the hate that is spewed in the name of the Lord. I guess it really started happening with Southern Baptist Sissies, you know, telling that story and actually being the character of Mark that left the church and used my intelligence to figure out that, hey, if you’re going to use this scripture to hate on me, then what about this scripture that you’re forgetting about?

And talk about embracing your damage? I was a Bible scholar as a kid and all through college. I went to Baylor University and had to take required religion and I sat in those pews, not once on Sunday, but twice, and on Wednesday night too. So I know the Bible, and when someone attacks me using it, I can turn it right back on him or her. What they are doing is supporting their own homophobia using scripture and saying their embracing the word of God, but they aren’t because they don’t live it. That’s what I like to point out. I like to poke at them. I like to go hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, and that is where I get a lot of material for my shows.

GC: So Del, you have a very unique vantage point for all men, straight and gay, because you have been married and divorced from a woman and a man. What is that like?

DS: No matter what has happened to me personally, I demand the same rights that our straight brothers and sisters have here in the States. Whether that be gay marriage, or gay divorce in my case, they have the right, so why shouldn’t I? So even though I am divorced I continue to fight publically for these rights on behalf of all of us.

Recently, I even had a fan post a comment relating back to my Queer as Folk days, saying that Debbie and Carl can get married now that Pennsylvania legalized gay marriage. It referenced a scene I’d forgotten about where Debbie tells Carl she can’t accept his proposal until her son Michael can also get married. It was a pretty popular post, and then for some unknown reason Facebook suspended my account over it, which turned into an international news story that actually started in Canada with Global News. It was all smoothed over and I got an apology, but it was a crazy time.

GC: There is another thing you have been ahead of the curve on in the LGBT community, and that’s being a gay father. There is an observable baby boom happening in our communities right now. My husband and I even have a two year old, so tell me, what are your thoughts on being an out parent?

DS: My family is certainly very unique. We went from having so-called traditional family values to suddenly very untraditional ones when my wife and I split up, but we’ve stayed close. My (ex) wife’s parents play Dr. Eve and Wardell in the Sordid Lives franchise, so we have this crazy kind of interesting family that my kids grew up with, so they didn’t know any different. It just shows that when you raise your kids that way, it just is. We didn’t make it a big deal to them, so to them it was no big deal. I’m so proud of them because now they are LGBT activists; they are spokespeople to their generation. So my advice for all parents is: just be available for your kids and spend time with them.

GC: So you have already said that Southern Baptist Sissies, a play and film you wrote and directed, is based on your own experiences as a young man. You are hosting a Q and A and screening here during the festival. When people walk out of the theater, what do hope they leave with?

DS: Two things. First of all, when I wrote the play, which has now become a film, I really thought I was writing for myself. It was an extension of my own therapy, and I honestly didn’t know how many people were singing the same song I was. It has become a very healing and cathartic story for many, many people. So I always hope that people who suffer the damage – there’s that damage thing again – who still have residual shame and conflict within themselves about the church, how they were raised, will go away not feeling alone – feeling enlightened, and feeling free. Just like it says in the Bible, the truth shall set you free.

Second, there are those from the church who have seen it and had a change of heart, because they see the pain and the danger of the rhetoric in these sermons. Causing some people to go to the degree, too many times, of taking their own lives. It is because of the church telling them you can pray it away, but then not being able to pray it away. I want people to know we are all worthy of love and that is what I hope people get out of all of my work. I want young people, especially the 15 year old Del and Jimmies out there, to know that they aren’t alone. There is nothing wrong with them, they are beautiful, and if they just hang in there, things will get better.

To find out more about Del Shores follow him on Facebook and Twitter.