Country music gay

Twenty Country Songs That Offer an LGBTQ+ Point of View

From alternative country and folk music to the heart of mainstream country, the musical genre boasts an ever-expanding roster of performers who identify as LGBTQ+ - and inject their viewpoints into their tunes.

The existence of country musicians who identify as queer isn't exactly a new occurrence. Tracks voiced from this viewpoint arguably go back to the late nineteen-thirties, when a group called the Sweet Violet Boys (also known as the Prairie Ramblers) unveiled "I Love My Fruit," one of the earliest examples of a tune considered to be about being gay. According to the BBC, a nineteen-sixties country artist named Wilma Burgess is believed to be the genre's inaugural openly gay star, charting fifteen hits on the Billboard Country & Western charts from 1965 through 1975. In the late seventies, she departed the music business and established Nashville's initial lesbian bar, the Hitching Post.

Lavender Country, spearheaded by their frontman, Patrick Haggerty, stands out as one of the most recognized pioneers of LGBTQ+ country music, and Haggerty remained a devoted anti-racism and gay rights campaigner until his passing in 2022. His music continues to be a groundbreaking influence for openly gay country artists, with the Lavender Country track "Come Out Singing" being the oldest tune on this list, released in 1973.

An LGBTQ+ perspective in country music has always been present, although it's gradually starting to become less stigmatized, aided by openly gay mainstream celebrities such as Chely Wright, Brothers Osborne's T.J. Osborne, Brandi Carlile, and Ty Herndon.

Concurrently, a fresh wave of stars such as Lily Rose and Brooke Eden are still broadening the scope of queer country music, presenting an expanding range of perspectives and encounters to connect better with an LGBTQ+ audience.

Explore the list below for a selection of songs that communicate an LGBTQ+ perspective, as sung and penned by artists sharing their real-life experiences.

We're Here, We're Queer, We're Country: Two Decades of Songs That Share an LGBTQ+ Perspective

LGBTQ+ artists have gained greater visibility in recent times, but they still constitute an underrepresented, marginalized segment within the musical genre in its entirety. As stigmas decrease and campaigners advocate for equality within the genre and beyond, more and more artists are releasing songs that address specifically an LGBTQ+ perspective. Presented are twenty remarkable songs that narrate that narrative.