'Don't Sneak': Dad's Unexpected Advice To His Gay Son In The '50s : NPR

Contents:

• GAY UNTRY MIC IN PATRICK HAGGERTY DIED MONDAY AT AGE 78
• PATRICK HAGGERTY, TRAILBLAZG GAY UNTRY STAR, DI AT 78
• PATRICK HAGGERTY, THE TRAILBLAZG GAY UNTRY SGER, LIVED 'FORCEFULLY AND FIERCELY'
• PATRICK HAGGERTY DI: MAN WILY REGARD AS FIRST OPENLY GAY COUNTRY SGER WAS 78
• LAVENR COUNTRY’S PATRICK HAGGERTY, WA’S PNEERG GAY UNTRY SGER, DI AT 78
• 'DON'T SNEAK': DAD'S UNEXPECTED ADVICE TO HIS GAY SON IN THE '50S
• A GAY SON’S RELLECTN OF HIS DAD’S ADVICE ON HOW TO LIVE HIS LIFE
• LAVENR COUNTRY'S PATRICK HAGGERTY WAS EMBRACED AS GAY UNTRY MIC'S RADIL ELR
• REMEMBERG GAY UNTRY IN PATRICK HAGGERTY AND HIS ST. LOUIS EBACK
• LAVENR COUNTRY SGER ON NEW LIFE, NEW MEANG FOR TRAILBLAZG GAY UNTRY BAND
• PATRICK HAGGERTY, ‘LOST PNEER’ OF GAY COUNTRY MIC, DI AT 78

GAY UNTRY MIC IN PATRICK HAGGERTY DIED MONDAY AT AGE 78

Gay untry mic in Patrick Haggerty died Monday at age 78 Country mic artist and activist Patrick Haggerty died Monday at age 78.

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, 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.

PATRICK HAGGERTY, THE TRAILBLAZG GAY UNTRY SGER, LIVED 'FORCEFULLY AND FIERCELY'

“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.

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. As It Happens6:33Patrick Haggerty, the trailblazg gay untry sger, lived 'forcefully and fiercely'A few years after the Stonewall rts lnched the gay rights movement to the ternatnal spotlight, untry mician Patrick Haggerty had to make a choice. "Was I gog to be openly gay and advote for gay rights, or was I gog to slher off to Nashville and stay the closet and try to make untry mic, " he told CBC Wnipeg's Informatn Rad September.

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

Their self-tled 1973 album is believed to be the first explicly gay rerd by openly gay artists. And I was jt listeng to the song Come Out Sgg om Lavenr Country's 1973 album, and starts wh such a betiful openg melody, and then he go on to sg: "Wakg up this morng to say: Hip, hip, hooray, I'm glad I'm gay. It was largely sold and distributed through muny anizatns and om the back pag of gay publitns.

LAVENR COUNTRY’S PATRICK HAGGERTY, WA’S PNEERG GAY UNTRY SGER, DI AT 78

It was sold out of the back pag of, amongst other thgs, a kd of ze for gay and LGBTQ folks livg ral areas, which was Patrick's own experience, too, so he felt strongly about reachg out to were a thoand pi prsed … and took probably, you know, several years, if not close to a , to move those pi. They would send him David Bowie CDs and tiaras and make-up and books about gay pri, and really jt anythg. 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.

“Cry’ The C*cks***g Tears” was clud the 2012 pilatn album Strong Love: Songs of Gay Liberatn 1972-1981.

'DON'T SNEAK': DAD'S UNEXPECTED ADVICE TO HIS GAY SON IN THE '50S

After we llaborated wh him to reissue and tell the story of his 1973 album, wily regard as the first openly gay untry rerd ever released, Patrick fally saw the served regnn and aclas that had elud him for s. Patrick Haggerty of pneerg Washgton untry band Lavenr Country has lifelong activist and unpromisg sger-songwrer released what is wily nsired the first gay-themed untry album 1973.

Released four years after the Stonewall uprisg, Lavenr Country’s out-and-proud songs didn’t fd much of an dience beyond the Seattle gay liberatn activists who heard or saw Lavenr Country play small lol shows, cludg the first cy-sanctned Pri event, which 1974 drew roughly 400 people to Seattle that changed 2014 when a small, boutique label reissued the self-tled but om the short-lived Seattle band that went unregnized outsi the lol gay muny. ”At recent Lavenr Country shows, the self-scribed “loudmouth, queer, Marxist activist” often regaled dienc wh stori om the ont l of the gay liberatn and workers’ rights movements and poed radil and clive polics.

Beg an out, gay activist the ’70s ma fdg employment challengg, Haggerty said, spe his master’s gree social the ’80s, Haggerty took part occupatns led by Seattle’s Black muny that staved off nstctn of a new Central District police precct and another that helped turn the abandoned Colman School to what’s now the Northwt Ain Amerin Mm. Though he didn’t w, both bids succsfully amplified their msage of Black-gay uny, Haggerty said.

A GAY SON’S RELLECTN OF HIS DAD’S ADVICE ON HOW TO LIVE HIS LIFE

“So sad to hear that the grandfather of queer untry, Patrick Haggerty has gone up to that big gay Honky tonk the sky, ” untry star Peck wrote an Instagram post as word of Haggerty’s ath circulated. When Patrick Haggerty was gearg up to rerd his very first untry mic album, he had a choice to 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 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'S PATRICK HAGGERTY WAS EMBRACED AS GAY UNTRY MIC'S RADIL ELR

"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 too.

REMEMBERG GAY UNTRY IN PATRICK HAGGERTY AND HIS ST. LOUIS EBACK

Haggerty was spic, Greav remembered -- Haggerty, as he told CNN earlier this year, was mostly performg for nursg home crowds for ee at 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. He even starred a 2016 documentary short about his life and legacy, and his mic soundtracked an origal ballet performed by a pany San 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 tegratg their inti to their remembered Haggerty as the "grandfather of queer untry" an Instagram post. 'Don't Sneak': Dad's Unexpected Advice To His Gay Son In The '50s.

LAVENR COUNTRY SGER ON NEW LIFE, NEW MEANG FOR TRAILBLAZG GAY UNTRY BAND

Patrick Haggerty, now 70, didn't know he was gay at the time, but says his father knew what directn he was head. " "And 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, " Haggerty says.

While growg up on a Washgton state dairy farm the 1950s, Patrick Haggerty realized he was gay. Lavenr Country, led by sger and songwrer Patrick Haggerty, released what wily nsired the first openly gay untry album 1973.

PATRICK HAGGERTY, ‘LOST PNEER’ OF GAY COUNTRY MIC, DI AT 78

But was jt the last half-dozen years or so that Lavenr Country's but — the self-tled, 10-song set he and his origal bandmat ma back 1973 — enjoyed wi regnn as the first openly gay untry album.

" as though ought to be self-evint that a boy who grew up a Hank Williams-lovg, dairy-farmg hoehold Washgton state and went on to bee an openly gay and polilly radilized man would reach for untry songwrg as a tool of agatn. He was acutely aware that songwrg advotg for a Marxist and tersectnal visn of gay liberatn would be unmarketable almost any genre the late '70s. What enabled him and his mil -nspirators Michael Carr, Eve Morris and Robert Hammerstrom to make that first Lavenr Country album, and prs 1, 000 pi of , was the grassroots fundg they received om Gay Communy Social Servic of Seattle, where they lived.

What he red about was the queer folks who bought the LP secret and listened tearful appreciatn as he merrily and explicly took down straight, whe, cis toxic masculy ("Cry' The C***suckg Tears"), cried how the forc of palism divid and nquered workg-class activist alns and layed gay liberatn ("Back the Closet Aga"), immortalized the pleasure and anonymy of a cisg enunter ("I Can't Shake the Stranger Out of You") and imaged a welg queer utopia where there would be no policg of genr performance ("Lavenr Country"). After half a of performg the Pacific Northwt, Haggerty felt margalized his own polil movement, too radil for the gay rights alns formg wh Democrats.