In an interview with the Georgia Voice
last week, Thompson, 29, first explains the origins of “Uncle Poodle,”
telling the paper it all started with Boo Boo’s pageant coach.

“We were at practice one day, getting ready for a pageant. Her coach
was talking about her gay friends, and she said, ‘I love all my
poodles.’ Alana thought she was really talking about dogs. She wanted to
know how many poodles she had, and what were their names,” Thompson
said in his sit-down with Topher Payne. “And I said, ‘No, Alana, she’s
talking about gay people.’ Well, that did it. All gay people are poodles
to her now, and I’m her number one poodle.” Boo Boo would then use the
p-word to describe Anderson Cooper, who was at that point about a month
away from officially coming out.

Thompson later discussed how he
and long-time boyfriend Josh married in August, surrounded by friends
and family, something many may assume would cause a stir in the deep
south. It didn’t. Not in Midgeville, at least, and Thompson says all the
acceptance he has experienced comes from the fact that he accepts
himself.

“I’m gay, but I’m as redneck as I can get,” he says. “f
you want people to accept you, you have to show you don’t have a
problem with yourself and just be up front about who you are. If you do,
you earn people’s respect. If everybody would just go on and do that,
ignorant people couldn’t cause so many problems. I know this is how I
was born and I don’t need to explain it to anybody. I live my life for
who I am. That’s why ‘Born This Way’ is gonna be my next tattoo.”

If
anyone has a problem with him or the other few dozen LGBT people in the
area, he doesn’t know about it: “If there’s people who have a problem
with [homosexuality], they keep it to themselves, just like if I have a
problem with them, I keep it to myself.”