Here Are Gay Country Sgers Who Stood Out Loud and Proud

Contents:

• HERE ARE GAY COUNTRY SGERS WHO STOOD OUT LOUD AND PROUD
• T.J. OSBORNE, OPENLY GAY ARTIST ADVOTG FOR CLIVY, CELEBRAT CMA W BY KISSG BOYIEND
• THE GAY SONGWRERS WHO SECRETLY LED THE UNTRY CHARTS ARE READY FOR THE SPOTLIGHT

HERE ARE GAY COUNTRY SGERS WHO STOOD OUT LOUD AND PROUD

Ty Herndon me out as gay 2014, havg prevly earned a handful of No. ” That same year, Billy Gilman (who found succs untry mic as a child wh songs cludg “One Voice”) also me out publicly as gay. Sce then, the untry mic dtry has slowly seen more openly gay artists and songwrers fd succs.

In the 2000s and 2010s, songwrers Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark, who are both openly gay, began havg succs as wrers. “We Shall Be Free” — and s celebry-filled mic vio — took aim at a number of social issu, cludg homophobia, eedom of relign, world hunger and racism.

Includ on the group Lavenr Country’s groundbreakg, gay-themed, eponymo 1973 album, this song is a mil ray of sunshe, as the sger basks the happs of a new relatnship. Brothers Osborne’s TJ Osborne me out as gay an terview wh TIME 2021, and soon, the siblg duo released this song, crafted as a song to TJ’s younger self, filled wh enuragement and wisdom.

T.J. OSBORNE, OPENLY GAY ARTIST ADVOTG FOR CLIVY, CELEBRAT CMA W BY KISSG BOYIEND

Nashville native Cys is an unniable pop and rock star, fond of sgg vers by the Cranberri and Soundgarn, but her gut list at the Ryman was 100 percent untry: Brothers Osborne, Ltle Big Town, Mickey Guyton, Maren Morris, and the gay masked wboy Orville Peck.

THE GAY SONGWRERS WHO SECRETLY LED THE UNTRY CHARTS ARE READY FOR THE SPOTLIGHT

In juxtaposn to Wallen’s boorish behavr was Osborne’s vulnerable, public revelatn a Time magaze terview that he was gay. Bee the very ia of a gay untry star once seemed like a fantasy — the assumptn beg that untry mic’s fan base was overwhelmgly nservative and perhaps even bigoted. “Gee Stra or Gee Gay, there’s no difference” go another le that has sce end up on a T-shirt.

Homan, who’d left his ral Kansas home at 18 to e to Nashville to pursue both mic and an tn, hadn’t imaged there would be a time when the untry-mic dtry would be welg to gay artists. “It was like, ‘I n ntue to be fortable and out and gay, or I n do untry mic, but I fely n’t do both, ’” he says. Now, midway through 2021, that dichotomy appears to be fallg apart as artists stop worryg how they’ll be perceived for beg gay.

Country mic has a lengthy and not-so-proud reputatn for beg tensely homophobic.

Gay untry sgers were, sadly, not warmly weled. For stance, Patrick Haggerty, whose band lled Lavenr Country, released what is wily believed to be the first explicly gay rerd 1973, ultimately leadg the band to fa to obscury.

From gay untry stars sgg os about lovg who you want to untry artists enuragg listeners not to be aaid to embrace their genr inty, the genre – both s artists and s fans – has fally reached a place where acceptance is the new standard.

So, today, let’s take a look at some of the most celebrated gay untry sgers – om Grammy Award-wng stars Brandi Carlile and Lil Nas X to T. Osborne, who is the first gay artist signed to a major untry label. Brandi Carlile spent most of her childhood beg told that “to be gay was a one-way ticket to hell.

” She even had never met another gay person – until she watched Ellen DeGener’ historic 1997 “I’m gay” episo, which she rerd on a VHS tape so she uld watch repeatedly. It was then that Carlile me to terms wh the fact that she was gay.

However, thgs changed at the height of his reer when he me out as gay durg the last day of Pri Month 2019 through a seri of tweets and his song lled “c7osure. In 2014, the Nashville artist revealed to PEOPLE a part of himself he has kept secret for his entire reer: beg a “happy gay man. Herndon said that Anthony Robbs’ semar 2009 sparked the urage for him to e out, thkg how his story might help terrified gay youth.