Gay Country Star Orville Peck Talks About Beg Out and His Queer Fans - Variety

Contents:

• ‘I’M HERE, I’M QUEER AND I’M COUNTRY’: THE TOP 5 GAY COUNTRY SONGS
• COUNTRY MIC HAS NEVER BEEN MORE GAY
• HERE ARE GAY COUNTRY SGERS WHO STOOD OUT LOUD AND PROUD
• FAMEWATCHER SEARCH PRIMARY MENU SKIP TO NTENT HOMECELEBRY HAIR TRANSPLANTCELEBRY PLASTIC SURGERYCELEBRY LEATHER JACKETBODY SHAPER SEARCH FOR: GAY MALE CELEBRI, HOT COUNTRY SGERSGAY MALE COUNTRY SGERS: EIGHT OUT AND PROUD COUNTRY STARS
• GAY MALE COUNTRY MIC SGERS YOU NEED TO KNOW
• 11 COUNTRY MIC ARTISTS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS GAY
• MASKED SGER ORVILLE PECK ON BEG OPENLY GAY COUNTRY MIC: ‘WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN THERE’
• 9 COUNTRY MIC ARTISTS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS GAY

‘I’M HERE, I’M QUEER AND I’M COUNTRY’: THE TOP 5 GAY COUNTRY SONGS

The very first gay untry song is thought to be I Love My F by The Sweet Vlet Boys. At the band’s helm was (and still is) sger, songwrer, and guarist Patrick Haggerty, a lifelong gay-rights and anti-racism activist and sometime polician.

In 1970, jt one year after the Stonewall rts, Haggerty moved to Seattle, Washgton, where he beme volved wh the Gay Communy Social Servic of Seattle, one of Ameri's first such anisatns for the queer muny.

Haggerty formed Lavenr Country 1972, and the band played regularly at gay pri events up and down the Wt Coast.

COUNTRY MIC HAS NEVER BEEN MORE GAY

The album featur songs about jtice all aspects of society but most notably the gay muny.

The stereotype of the flannel shirt-sportg, beard, long hair topped wh a tcker p, untry-mic lovg ‘hick’ has now bee emblematic of backward, and homophobic, thkg – as seen for example, Taylor Swift’s You Need to Calm Down mic vio which whe workg-class people are shown prottg agast gay rights. “Then the ‘70s when social polics took such a big turn wh the women’s rights movement, the gay rights movement, the civil rights movement,  wasn’t ol for middle-class people to be tolerant. “When I was le dancg I uld jt dance around and be a ltle gay boy and no one would judge me for , ” he rells.

“And I unrstand why people are choosg the more morate paths orr to get to gay stardom but [ my mic] ’s the raw real polic that people are attracted to. While the stereotype is that untry mic is about as far om gay-iendly as you n get, that’s not always the se.

HERE ARE GAY COUNTRY SGERS WHO STOOD OUT LOUD AND PROUD

That may be due to the lyrics, however, which tell the story of a gay man cshg on his straight iend. Though Sublette’s not gay himself, he lived on Christopher Street New York Cy, next door to a gay untry bar.

And hey, was good enough for Pansy Divisn to ver for a Stop Homophobia pilatn 7″! Freddy Freeman’s “I’m Here, I’m Queer and I’m Country” feels like a manifto for the gay untry mic fan.

While Mgrav herself is straight, the song was -wrten wh Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark, both openly gay Nashville songwrers.

FAMEWATCHER SEARCH PRIMARY MENU SKIP TO NTENT HOMECELEBRY HAIR TRANSPLANTCELEBRY PLASTIC SURGERYCELEBRY LEATHER JACKETBODY SHAPER SEARCH FOR: GAY MALE CELEBRI, HOT COUNTRY SGERSGAY MALE COUNTRY SGERS: EIGHT OUT AND PROUD COUNTRY STARS

” While the song was censored when she performed for the CMA Awards broadst, wasn’t the reference to homosexualy that was cut, but the reference to smokg a jot.

No article on gay untry mic would be plete whout a mentn of Pat Haggerty, the lear of the first gay untry band Lavenr Country.

GAY MALE COUNTRY MIC SGERS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Rerd for a private-prs LP 1973, “Cry’ The Cocksuckg Tears” is a fearls prott song agast homophobia and sexism. 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. In juxtaposn to Wallen’s boorish behavr was Osborne’s vulnerable, public revelatn a Time magaze terview that he was gay.

11 COUNTRY MIC ARTISTS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS 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.

MASKED SGER ORVILLE PECK ON BEG OPENLY GAY COUNTRY MIC: ‘WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN THERE’

Now, midway through 2021, that dichotomy appears to be fallg apart as artists stop worryg how they’ll be perceived for beg gay. hen Brandy Clark lnched a untry-mic rerdg reer 2013, there wasn’t any template to follow for an openly gay artist Nashville. Clark has been at the foreont of that shift and creds her iendship wh Shane McAnally — one of Nashville’s most succsful songwrers, who is also gay — wh givg her the nfince to pursue a solo reer.

“Who knows who’s gog to be listeng to me the flyover stat that’s gog to draw strength om ‘Oh, she’s gay too?

Man, if she’s gay and dog that, maybe I uld do that. “Gee Stra or Gee Gay, there’s no difference, ” sgs Homan, who now liv Nashville.

9 COUNTRY MIC ARTISTS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS GAY

“Though a lot of people that work the dtry support me om a distance, there’s a difference between that and actually takg some steps to ph that further and sign some [gay artists], ” Homan says. Country mic has a lengthy and not-so-proud reputatn for beg tensely homophobic. Gay untry sgers were, sadly, not warmly weled.