Elvira Says 'Horny Older Men' Were Hardest Hit By Her Coming Out

2021 Out100 honoree Cassandra Peterson, better known to her millions of fans as the sultry horror hostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, revealed that not everyone was pleased with her recent coming out.

Peterson, 70, told the Behind the Velvet Ropepodcast how a subset of her fanbase felt jilted by her announcement in her recent autobiography, Yours Cruelly, Elvira.

"The straight people, I knew that there was going to be some horny old men out there who, who were just not going to like the fact that they didn't have a chance with me anymore," Peterson said, adding they ever really had a chance with her anyway.

The news stunned many fans, resulting in an initial loss of over 10,000 folks on one unidentified social media platform. However, she realized a net gain of almost 50,000 new followers by the end of the day.

"It's funny. One of the things that happened is on my social media, I won't say which platform," Peterson said. "In one day, the day after the book came out, I lost 11,000 people just said, 'Elvira, you lied to me. I don't respect you anymore. Goodbye.' But I got 60,000 new followers the same day. It was funny. I know it was mostly straight older guys who just felt lied to, you know, I don't know. So you can't please everybody!"

It was not her straight fan base of men she was worried about, however.

"Honestly, I worried more about my gay fan base," she said. "Because I hope they embraced it, but I was feeling like, what if they think I'm a big fat hypocrite and I was lying to them and, and here I was going, oh my, I love, you know, the LBGTQ+ community."

So when the opportunity to pen her own autobiography came up, Peterson decided to cast caution to the wind and use the book as a vehicle to come out.

"When I first thought about writing the book, there would have been the book that was just more about Elvira, how I became Elvira and some of my past and all that," Peterson said, describing herself as "a huge reader of autobiographies" especially those "written by the person themselves" rather than a ghostwriter, saying they feel more real.

Peterson added she especially likes autobiographies "that really spill the beans" because "those are the ones that are interesting and that you love and you end up loving the person even more."

After some consideration, Peterson decided to go ahead and spill the beans, as she put it.

"And so I thought, if I'm going to do it, I'm just going to put it all out there," she said. "What do I have to lose?"

Peterson told Out late last year she had considered coming out much sooner, but friends dissuaded her with fears about the potential damage to her career.

"I'm playing this sexy straight horndog woman, you know. If I was playing someone's grandma, I don't think people would care. But I've had friends who play straight male romantic leads whose careers [coming out] has ruined," Peterson told Out, adding, "I have friends who said to me, 'If you're ever asked if T is your partner or if you're with a woman, deny, deny, deny -- don't say anything if you want to keep your career going.' So I just did."

She also discussed her first kiss with partner, Teresa "T" Wierson. At first, the pair were just friends but their passions soon escalated. Peterson also revealed she made the first move.

"She would have never ever tried to kiss me, I know she wouldn't. Because she's just too proper and decent and all the things I'm not!"

And just like that, 11,000 straight horny older men were left alone to shed their tears of perceived betrayal and unrequited love.

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