Music History Events: LGBT
August 14, 2019 Matt Healy of The 1975, an advocate for LGBQ rights, ventures into the crowd and kisses a male fan on the lips during a concert in Dubai, where homosexuality is illegal. "We're all human, right?," he says upon returning to the stage.
March 15, 2019 Sam Smith says he is nonbinary, telling Jameela Jamil, "I am not male or female. I think I float somewhere in between."
April 5, 2018 The EP Universal Love – Wedding Songs Reimagined is released, with six classic songs sung from the perspective of same-sex couples. Bob Dylan does "She's Funny That Way" as "He's Funny That Way," and St. Vincent turns "Then He Kissed Me" into "Then She Kissed Me."More
March 26, 2018 Kesha, an ordained minister, presides over a same-sex wedding between two of her fans in Las Vegas. Footage is used in her video for "I Need A Woman To Love," a reworking of the Janis Joplin song "I Need a Man to Love."
May 14, 2017 Johnny Mathis confirms he is gay during an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, saying, "I come from San Francisco. It's not unusual to be gay in San Francisco. I've had some girlfriends, some boyfriends, just like most people. But I never got married, for instance. I knew that I was gay." He had been reluctant to discuss the issue ever since a 1982 Us Magazine article addressing his homosexuality resulted in numerous death threats toward the singer.
April 14, 2016 In an interview with the Mormon Stories podcast, Neon Trees lead singer Tyler Glenn reveals that he is leaving the Mormon church in response to its ruling that gay marriage is apostasy. Glenn came out as gay in 2014.
August 21, 2015 When the Westboro Baptist Church, famous for their anti-gay demonstrations, stage a protest before a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, the band responds by driving a truck in front of the demonstrators and Rickrolling them by blasting Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."More
April 29, 2015 Cyndi Lauper testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee, speaking on behalf of homeless LGBTQ youth, whom she says are often kicked out of shelters and denied services. Lauper co-founded the True Colors Fund in 2008 to advocate for the cause.
January 21, 2014 Against Me! release the album Transgender Dysphoria Blues, their first since lead singer Laura Jane Grace came out as transgender. The album began as a concept piece about a transexual prostitute back when Grace was still presenting as a man (Tom Gabel). The personal implications became clear when she came out and her bandmates figured out what was going on. Two of the four members of the band - drummer Jay Weinberg and bass player Andrew Seward - quit before it is completed, but the album earns strong reviews and Grace becomes a leader in the fight for transgender rights.
June 8, 2000 Sinead O'Connor comes out as a lesbian during an interview with Curve magazine, saying, "I would say that I'm a lesbian. Although I haven't been very open about that and throughout most of my life I've gone out with blokes because I haven't necessarily been terribly comfortable about being a lesbian. But I actually am a lesbian." She marries a man the following year and says she's "three-quarters heterosexual, a quarter gay."
April 25, 1993 RuPaul performs "Supermodel (You Better Work)" at the LGBT March on Washington.More
March 7, 1988 The drag queen Divine (Glenn Milstead) dies of a heart attack at age 42.More
September 26, 1956 The Cassandra column in the Daily Mirror (written by William Connor) insinuates that the pianist Liberace is homosexual.
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