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GAY INOGRAPHY: SHACKG UP WH THE B-52S
When the group first arrived on the scene 1976, “gay” wasn’t trendy, but the band jt seemed urageo enough to do their own thg. Punk their subversn of nventn and celebratn of the absurd, they were also fiantly fun at a time when Print Ronald Reagan wouldn’t so much as say the word “gay” or addrs the fact that AIDS was quickly beg a panmic — one that would claim Ricky as one of s earlit high-profile sualti. Four of the band’s five origal members did, fact, intify as LGBTQ: Ricky, Schneir and Strickland as gay men, and Pierson, who was volved wh a man until the early 2000s, is now married to a woman.
“Back then, was lled GRID [Gay-Related Immune Deficiency]. Beg outsirs or gay or whatever, they felt different, and I gus our msage was, 's always, 's okay to be different. It’s really important to acknowledge [the fluence of] gay men mic – the B-52’s are one of the biggt fluenc on every pennt band that I’ve ever met.
It was the first time I’d heard a gay man mic. It was jt the sound of an unabashed, unapologetilly gay man at a time when wasn’t part of the nversatn. I never thought about whether the B-52’s had a gay angle.