Jonny Pierce (the Dms) Talks Gay Conversn Therapy, His Te Voice and Fear

Contents:

• THE DMS’ JONNY PIERCE: ‘BEG GAY LERALLY SAVED MY LIFE’
• THE DMS’ JONNY PIERCE SHAR HIS ‘ABYSMAL THOUGHTS’ ON LOVE, LOSS, AND GROWG UP GAY: 'I WANT EVERYTHG TO JT BE OK'
• JONNY PIERCE (THE DMS) TALKS GAY CONVERSN THERAPY, HIS TE VOICE AND FEAR
• FIVE CLASSICS MOTOWN SONGS FEATURG MARV GAYE ON DMS
• GAY RIGHTS
• THE MARKETG TEAM BEHD THE 2023 GAY GAM SHAR WHAT’S STORE

THE DMS’ JONNY PIERCE: ‘BEG GAY LERALLY SAVED MY LIFE’

He’s certaly a long way om where he was while dog prs for the band’s but album 2009, when he “full-on lied” about his sexualy to a Sunday Tim reporter who somewhat tsively asked if he or any of his bandmat were gay.

When die-rock band the Dms, led by openly gay sger-songwrer Jonny Pierce, performed this month at the Los Angel Pri Ftival, marked another major personal and profsnal tone for Pierce, who raised a small town by strict, unsupportive, Pentestal preacher parents. The tth is that for a lot of my life I’ve celebrated homosexualy, but remaed homophobic towards myself.

”After his Pri performance, Yahoo Entertament sat down wh Pierce, age 37, to discs his long and sometim paful journey om beg a closeted kid to out-and-proud queer in, and why he now believ that beg gay ultimately saved his Entertament: For years, you didn’t want to participate any Pri events. Jonny Pierce: I thk Pri is ultimately a really good thg, but at the same time I don't always feel that my versn of homosexualy is reflected a Gay Pri event self. I thk a lot of tim when people thk of Gay Pri, they thk of the most flamboyant, extreme versn of Pri or beg gay and you know, I jt never felt like accepted that muny.

THE DMS’ JONNY PIERCE SHAR HIS ‘ABYSMAL THOUGHTS’ ON LOVE, LOSS, AND GROWG UP GAY: 'I WANT EVERYTHG TO JT BE OK'

You know, when you're gay kid growg up a hostile environment, you have to get creative about everythg. If you're gay and you have supportive parents om the get-go that’s great, but that’s not always the se. I was born a small town New York state, five hours north of New York Cy, to mother and father who happen to be born-aga Christians and have a Pentestal church — stnchly anti-gay.

I n say now that I'm not homophobic toward myself, but I thk bee of doctratn for so many years — I went through some therapy tryg to “rrect” what they thought was “wrong” wh me and all of that stuff — even though the ont of your md sometim jt sayg, “I know that's silly, that's bulls***, ” sometim there's still thgs lgerg your sub-sub-nsc you're not even aware of. And so sometim 's wonrful, and if 's not that’s really unfortunate and 's not fair, but you've got to face that and make some real 't your parents rally agast a gay bookstore or somethg crazy like that? My mother went there, saw that there was some like gay books there, and she told them if they didn't remove those books that she'd ll for a town-wi boytt of the store.

Be as good of a kid as you n, bee you already have this gay thg gog on and you don't want to make them even more mad. ’'Rocketman' star Taron Egerton on gay storyle: 'I'm very proud that our movie puts ont and center''NSync's Lance Bass says 'mic dtry is still homophobic, ' but ’s time for an openly gay boy bandPop prodigy MNEK on beg a black gay role mol: 'There's nothg wrong wh beg myself'‘Amerin Idol’ nttant Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon’s brave g-out story: ‘Everybody was a ltle jolted by how transparent I was beg’Follow Lyndsey on Facebook, Twter, Instagram, Google+, Amazon, Tumblr, daily pop culture news livered to your box?

JONNY PIERCE (THE DMS) TALKS GAY CONVERSN THERAPY, HIS TE VOICE AND FEAR

Pierce — who grew up gay a small town raised by strict Pentestal preacher parents, had stggled over the years wh beg gay the public eye, and found himself tranged off and on om his fay due to his sexualy — was sudnly forced to reasss his entire om great pa often great art, and Abysmal Thoughts is the Dms’ ft album sce their 2010 but. I thk a lot of has to do wh how I grew up, beg gay, havg two parents as pastors of a big church — a big, anti-gay, born-aga, speak--tongu church.

I wrote my PR agent and I said, “I really want to talk about when is appropriate and OK and not crazy to close the door pletely on a relatnship your life, where there’s somebody who isn’t supportive of you beg gay, or jt beg who you are? I feel my lifetime I’ve never felt such a palpable, tangible threat to my rights and to other people’s rights around me — not jt gay people, but anyone who’s a mory suatn. You uld say, “I want to give you the moon, but I also do believe that women should have ntrol of their own body and gay people should be allowed to be married and live wh the same rights as anyone else.

FIVE CLASSICS MOTOWN SONGS FEATURG MARV GAYE ON DMS

If you jt say that you’re antiabortn and antigay, you’re gog to get a lot of Christians votg for you. It was jt really amazg to see, to be a part of his procs of leavg a church that is fundamentally antigay and to make really quick progrs.

I know seems like would be sry to feel that way, but for me I remember when I moved to New York Cy, I was really kd of gog [wh beg out the open about my sexualy], and then I stumbled across a Gay Pri para and got really spooked. I ran upstate and swore I wouldn’t be gay anymore and threw myself the church and started datg women — or tryg to, anyway.

Then that kd of fizzled out, and I end up g back to the cy and tryg to live my life here as the “gay guy” aga, but still always wh that fear the back of my md that I was gog to burn Hell for . I’ve got to figure out a way to be OK wh beg like you’ve always done a lot of you’re gay and a small town where nobody else wants anythg to do wh you, you have no other choice but to look at life at all the different angl. I don’t thk of the Dms as primarily an LGBTQ band — ’s jt part of your story, particularly sce wasn’t part of your public story when the band first started — but do you feel like you need to be a role mol to the gay muny, terms of how you nduct yourself or anythg like that?

GAY RIGHTS

” One thg nobody seemed to want to be was a band wh a gay lead sger, let alone also a gay -wrer and synthizer were worried about not beg accepted? I didn’t feel that 2010 that there was a lot of space for queer or gay artists that sort of New York/Brooklyn die scene.

I felt like if I were to e out 2010 as the gay sger of the Dms, I had a real fear that people wouldn’t want to listen to the Dms or that people would lose tert. People were gettg exced about the Dms, and if I screwed this up and told people that I’m gay, if I told the prs I’m gay, I uld really be shootg myself the foot.

For me, I feel like I’m more effective as somebody who jt happens to be gay, puts out rerds, and then at the end of the day when he gets a ltle horny, he’ll sleep wh a guy stead of a girl. We spoke to eight gay and lbian artists for The Prott Issue, all of them hont and passnate nversatns rangg om polics to art to relatnships. But only when you hear where the now-openly gay sger has e om—a story that would have curled my hair if weren’t already—do you appreciate jt what a remarkable journey he has been on.

THE MARKETG TEAM BEHD THE 2023 GAY GAM SHAR WHAT’S STORE

[Pierce was terviewed for, and is quoted , the article “The Rabow Connectn: Gay and Lbian Artists on Marriage and More, ” which is our Prott Issue.

Bee I see on Facebook and I hear om gay people all the time about how angry they are at Obama and the admistratn, for takg too long or not phg hard enough. I haven’t done enough, and thgs are still happeng that are helpg to make my life easier as a homosexual. ” And I thk his pot was that this is such a no-braer, of urse gay people should be allowed to marry.

And I know there are a lot of sual Christians out there who have like a gay iend who works an office wh them and thk “Oh, Jim’s not that bad. ” But there’s this whole other world that I e om, where you are nmned to hell and there’s nothg you n do about if you’re a homosexual. I’ve had my mother tell me that she would prefer me to live my life as a sgle man, celibate, than to have a gay partner.