Op-Ed: Mason Pilevsky, 05 April 2026

For a while, I have been avoiding publishing my opinions on either iteration of Prince Faggot, and, full disclosure, I have seen neither the production at Playwright’s Horizons nor the production at Studio Seaview, and have heard from people I respect that the show is really good. With its recent six Lucille Lortel Award nominations, I feel compelled to voice my objections. I have been out as a queer person for nearly nineteen years, and, while I don’t mind hearing that word used within the context of a play, I have strong objections to using it in the title. Why? Let’s start off with the fact that at minimum six award presenters are going to say “faggot” at least once on May 3.

I have seen advertisements for this show on the streets of New York City, and in the subway system. I have witnessed the marketing become increasingly comfortable plastering this word without the initial “*” redaction of the “a” in “faggot” all over the Internet and social media. Ticket buyers, no doubt, are being empowered to say this word on the phone with the theater, in line at the box office, etc. and are now including the word “faggot” in their Google searches surrounding the show. AI uses the words that we use to show us the types of things we want to see. We’re teaching it to show us content including the word “faggot”.

Is the queer community reclaiming this word, as we have reclaimed other insults in the past? While a small minority seems to be, the vast majority are not. For some of our murdered predecessors, “faggot” was the last word they ever heard.

Obviously we have to talk about “faggot” within the context of art about the queer community. The word “faggot” holds unique power to stir up emotions in everybody who has ever been called that or has had a loved one be called that. The overwhelming usage of the word “faggot” has been derogatory. Putting it in the title as opposed to the body of the play changes conversations. It puts that word back in the mouths of anyone on the street who sees an advertisement. It introduces that word onto awards stages. It normalizes seeing, hearing, saying, and searching for that word.

I’d feel differently if a higher percentage of queer people wanted this word in straight people’s mouths. Since Prince Faggot debuted, another show with “faggot” in the title has emerged, The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions at Park Avenue Armory. So more advertisements, more online searches, more social media, more saying it verbally in ticket lines and conversations about theatre. Whether or not we want to hear “faggot” more frequently should not be up to artists—it should be up to gay men, as that is who this word demeans.

Think for a second of a well intentioned father buying tickets to a show for himself and his son, who he suspects might be a faggot, in a misguided attempt to tell his son he’s okay with that. That sentence would be infinitely kinder if in place of “faggot” I used “gay” or “queer” or “homosexual” or literally anything else. But people who are now fathers know the word “faggot” better than any of the more politically correct words, and now this potentially well-meaning father thinks it’s okay to call his son a faggot. It is in the title, after all.

I don’t mind using slurs and epithets within the context of a show. I think it’s okay for actors to say them if they have a purpose as part of telling the story. I don’t think it’s right to ask or encourage audience members to say them. Anybody can buy a theatre ticket, but it’s not appropriate for everybody to walk around saying “faggot.”

I have chosen not see a production of Prince Faggot.