Gay untry mic in Patrick Haggerty died Monday at age 78 : NPR

Contents:

• PATRICK HAGGERTY, TRAILBLAZG GAY UNTRY STAR, DI AT 78
• CARL BEAN, GAY SGER WHO TURNED TO PREACHG, DI AT 77
• STEVE BRONSKI, OF THE PNEERG GAY BAND BRONSKI BEAT, DI AT 61
• GAY UNTRY MIC IN PATRICK HAGGERTY DIED MONDAY AT AGE 78
• PATRICK HAGGERTY DI: MAN WILY REGARD AS FIRST OPENLY GAY COUNTRY SGER WAS 78
• 40 BT GAY SGERS & MICIANS OF ALL TIME (LGBTQ+ SGERS)
• GREATT GAY SGERS OF ALL TIME
• GAY SGER GEE MICHAEL WAS FOUND DEAD ON CHRISTMAS OF 2016 & BURIED UNMARKED GRAVE FOR YEARS
• 35 BT GAY SGERS OF ALL TIME (LGBTQ+ SGERS)

PATRICK HAGGERTY, TRAILBLAZG GAY UNTRY STAR, DI AT 78

He uld be the dtry-iendly untry star and rema the closet, or he uld e mic to make a statement about what was like beg a gay man a eply discrimatory world. He chose the latter, and 1973’s “Lavenr Country, ” Haggerty’s first album rerd unr the same name, is now wily nsired the first untry album rerd by an out gay mician. “Lavenr Country” was a fiantly queer rerd, wh songs like “Cry’ The C**ksuck’ Tears, ” durg a time when few micians any genre were fortable g out as gay.

He was kicked out of the Peace Corps the ’60s for beg gay, he told CNN earlier this year.

He told Pchfork 2014 that his gay iends Seattle were “who we ma for, and that’s who we played to. That ll wh Greav was the first step to retroducg Haggerty and Lavenr Country to new listeners, many of whom had been hungry for an out gay untry star.

CARL BEAN, GAY SGER WHO TURNED TO PREACHG, DI AT 77

He performed the songs he’d wrten more than 40 years earlier wh new gay untry stars like Orville Peck and Trixie Mattel, who’ve both found nsirable succs for tegratg their inti to their acts.

Pri that beme a much-remixed club favore — and who then beme a mister and AIDS activist, foundg a church Los Angel that sought to serve the spirual needs of gay people and others who were margalized — died on Tuday Los Angel.

STEVE BRONSKI, OF THE PNEERG GAY BAND BRONSKI BEAT, DI AT 61

It did not give a Bean, who was openly gay om a young age, was a sger before he was a preacher and received the tle archbishop, rerdg gospel songs for ABC Rerds the mid-1970s as the ontman for the group Carl Bean and Universal Love.

The chos went: “Oh y I’m happy, I’m reee and I’m gay, y I’m gay. ”The Bean versn, wh a more pronounced dis flair and a streamled chos (“I’m happy, I’m reee and I’m gay; I was born this way”), beme a favore gay clubs all over the untry and abroad.

GAY UNTRY MIC IN PATRICK HAGGERTY DIED MONDAY AT AGE 78

“I suppose this song and s msage is a sort of mistry to gay people, ” he said the 1978 terview. “I am g my voice to tell gay people that they n still feel good about beg gay even if there are people like Ana Bryant around” — a reference to one of the most proment opponents of gay rights the Uny Fellowship Church MovementHe always praised Motown for backg the rerd, but, he said a 2009 terview wh the webse Out Alliance, he and the pany parted ways “when they wanted me to do songs like ‘Ooh girl I love you so’ — right after they promoted me as openly gay. He was ordaed 1982 by Archbishop William Morris O’Neal of the Universal Tabernacl of Christ Church and began workg Los Angel, wh a particular tert reachg out to gay Black people and other groups who had felt unwele mastream Christiany.

PATRICK HAGGERTY DI: MAN WILY REGARD AS FIRST OPENLY GAY COUNTRY SGER WAS 78

“AIDS took the cloak off for the world that homosexualy exists, pecially for mori, ” he told The Los Angel Tim 1989. “People who wanted to thk there was no such thg as a gay Black man or a gay Lato had a awakeng.

“Mom was 15, Dad was 16, and they never married, ” he wrote his tobgraphy, “I Was Born This Way: A Gay Preacher’s Journey Through Gospel Mic, Dis Stardom, and a Mistry Christ” (2010), wrten wh David & SchterIn the book, he portrayed his upbrgg as a munal affair.

”But he also knew om an early age that he was gay, and eventually the muny turned on him.

40 BT GAY SGERS & MICIANS OF ALL TIME (LGBTQ+ SGERS)

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTHe was part of a Brish tr whose songs often directly addrsed gay them and issu a way few other pop mic acts were Cor/Redferns, via Getty ImagSteve Bronski, part of the 1980s Brish synth-pop tr Bronski Beat, whose members were openly gay at a time when that was unmon and whose early songs unabashedly addrsed homophobia and other gay issu, died after a fire on Dec. It was a stark story of a young gay man’s pe om a provcial town where he had endured a homophobic attack; a hntg chos repeats, “Run away, turn away.

A follow-up, “Why?, ” another chart succs, was equally direct, the lyrics speakg to the ostracism and social disapproval experienced by gay people.

GREATT GAY SGERS OF ALL TIME

”At the time, a number of mastream performers — Elton John, the Village People, Boy Gee — telegraphed gayns, often wh stereotypil flamboyance, but they rarely addrsed gay issu directly song. The album sleeve listed the “mimum age for lawful homosexual relatnships between men” European untri, an effort to unrsre that the age Bra at the time, 21, was higher than was almost everywhere else.

The sleeve also clud a phone number for a gay legal advice Bronski said the tr didn’t start out as a polil or social statement.

“We were jt wrg songs that spoke about our liv at the time, ” he told the magaze Gay Tim 2018.

GAY SGER GEE MICHAEL WAS FOUND DEAD ON CHRISTMAS OF 2016 & BURIED UNMARKED GRAVE FOR YEARS

Whaley said that though Bronski Beat’s bt-known songs had gay-centric lyrics, “their appeal crossed the boundari of sexual alignment. “It was a lot easier livg London, ” he told Classic Pop magaze 2019, explag why he and other gay men had gravated to the cy, “sce there was a thrivg gay scene pared to other parts of the untry. “I thk a lot of the songs are as relevant today as they were all those years ago, ” he told Gay Tim.

A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn B, Page 11 of the New York edn wh the headle: Steve Bronski, 61, Is Dead; Part of Bronski Beat Band That Addrsed Gay Issu. Gay untry mic in Patrick Haggerty died Monday at age 78 Country mic artist and activist Patrick Haggerty died Monday at age 78.

35 BT GAY SGERS OF ALL TIME (LGBTQ+ SGERS)

Gay untry mic in Patrick Haggerty died Monday at age 78. Haggerty broke ground as the first openly gay untry mic artist wh the group Lavenr Country. He first began to unrstand he was gay while growg up on a dairy farm Washgton State the 1950s.

And if you n around spendg your whole life thkg that you're dog the wrong thg, then you'll your immortal out of all the thgs a father 1959 uld have told his gay son, my father tells me to be proud of myself and not sneak. Patrick Haggerty, the trailblazer wily regard as the first openly gay untry sger, died on Monday surround by his hband and children, acrdg to a statement on his band’s Instagram page.

The self-tled 1973 disc is the first known gay-themed album untry mic history, acrdg to Journal of Country Mic. Wh tracks like “Come Out Sgg” and “Cry’ The C*cks***g Tears, ” was fund and released by Gay Communy Social Servic of Seattle. Lavenr Country rned briefly 2000 after a proment article on gay untry micians sparked renewed tert.