This piece was originally published for Tastemakers Music Magazine.
Despite how it sounds, “a South-African cowboy and a motel-owning drag queen walk into a recording studio” isn’t the start of a joke with some bad punchline. Rather, it’s the true story of how country star Orville Peck and drag artist Trixie Mattel recorded a duet cover of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash's “Jackson” in 2021. And just two months prior, T.J. Osborne (one half of Brothers Osbourne) made public his gay identity in TIME magazine and became the first and only openly gay country artist signed to a major country label. Most recently, in January on MTV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race, country superstar Maren Morris apologized on behalf of the country community to a room full of drag performers on national television.
Peck, Mattel, Osborne, and Morris are just a few of the current artists actively changing the relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and the country/folk genres — a relationship that has been historically strained by the conservative leanings of many country listeners and the exclusion of queer narratives in the genre. In some ways, these artists are just widening the spaces in the community already made for them by decades of queer artists before them, like Wilma Burgess or Tracy Chapman, that weren’t allowed to similarly shine. But with new country artists on the rise and louder allies than ever, is there hope for a more accepting, harmonious status quo between the two?
Staunch Queer Artists
“Tap, tap, tappin' on your window screen… Gotta let me in Persephone…” Wistful lyrics like these have all the elements of a classic country love song. But the twist comes in the tenor; drafted from one teenage girl to another, “Persephone” is a raw and soulful representation of Allison Russell’s queer identity. The Canadian folk artist and advocate for SA survivors has crafted a unique role for herself in the genre, imbuing deep empathy and truth-telling into her efforts to “reclaim the banjo's ancestral African-American roots." Russell’s Grammy-nominated Americana music has served as a stunning subversion for those not typically centered in the gender-normative genres of country and folk music: Black people, queer people, and all of those generally lost or othered in society.
Country has admittedly centered some “othered” stories through its representation of the working-class throughout the history of the genre — think Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Mel Tillis’ “Sawmill,” or even Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.” However, Allison Russell’s work represents a heightened level of intersectionality, which is a social and political framework that analyzes and understands how all the different aspects of individual and group identity create systems of discrimination and privilege. The kind of intersectionality championed in Russell’s work, where every underrepresented racial and sexual identity is celebrated and heard equally, has been incorporated into country music at a much slower pace.
None know this better than country band Lavender Country and their lead singer/guitarist Patrick Haggerty, who released what’s considered to be the first country album ever by an out gay performer. The eponymous 1973 album, Lavender Country, was unabashed about its queer defiance and content in a genre that refused to be ready for its inclusion. One Seattle radio host was even fired from their local KRAB station in Seattle for playing on-air one of the album’s tracks, “Cryin' These Cocksucking Tears.” As their voices were stifled, so was their commercial success. The band’s musical career flatlined until the early 2000s, when a newfound fanbase led to the rerelease of the album to a broader audience, the revival of the band, and their first performance in over three decades. And with the 2019 release of their second studio album, Blackberry Rose, Lavender Country’s queer country joy went from unplayable on Seattle radio to celebrated in national publications in just under 50 years.
The list of queer artists only seems to grow every day. Queer country staples like Brandi Carlile and the Indigo Girls continue to triumph in the genre – yet there is so much more work to be done. At the same time that trans rights are facing political assaults at the local and national levels, trans artists particularly have to fight to carve a space for themselves in the country, Americana, and folk genres. The CountryQueer online publication highlighted this in their report “The Case Of The Missing Trans Country Artists,” which explained that so many trans singers still do not feel a home for themselves in the community. That’s why the existence and success of the few trans artists in those genres — folk-rocker Namoli Brennet, activist-musician Ryan Cassata, and two-time Grammy-nominee Cidny Bullens come to mind — remain so important to an intersectional, welcoming music industry for the whole spectrum of queer talent.
Steadfast Queer Allies
“Coming from country music and its relationship with LGBTQ+ members, I just want to say I'm sorry," Morris said to a room full of dragged-up faces on /Untucked/, following the January 13th episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The country singer had come onto the show as one of the week’s special guests, alongside rotating judge and LGBTQ+ activist T.S. Madison. "I love you guys for making me feel like a brave voice in country music. So I just thank you guys so much for inspiring me."
In a prior interview with GLAAD, Morris attributed her advocacy to the death of her uncle from the AIDs crisis in the 90s and to her many queer-identifying friends in her high school theater department. The country artist furthers the allyship mold past passive inaction, regularly making headlines for her throaty defenses of the queer community. Just this past August, Morris clapped back at Brittany Aldean, wife of country crooner Jason Aldean, for distasteful comments comparing growing out of a “tomboy” phase to gender transitions. “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie,” Morris tweeted. She was joined by several other artists like country-pop performer Cassadee Pope, who implored beauty influencers and country artists alike to “include LGBTQ+ people in their messaging.” It’s hard to imagine that a similarly insensitive comment would have received such pushback from other country stars even ten years ago.
Morris is far from the only loud-and-proud public ally in country music. Just this past year, country star Kacey Musgraves was the recipient of GLAAD’s Vanguard Award, which honors “someone who has made a significant difference in promoting [the] equality and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people.” In 2014, Musgraves became the first country artist to perform at the GLAAD Media Awards, where she performed her smash hit from her debut album, “Follow Your Arrow.” At the time of the single’s release, Musgrave’s label warned her that the song’s lyrics — “make lots of noise / kiss lots of boys / or kiss lots of girls / if that’s something you’re into / … just follow your arrow wherever it points” – would lead her career to “crash and burn.” Instead, the song charted upon release and quickly became an anthem for queer country fans.
Musgraves has continued to embody her allyship even as her fame and recognition have only grown. After guest judging on season 4 of Drag Race: All Stars, she invited winners Monét X Change and Trinity the Tuck to join her onstage in Los Angeles to perform during her tour. She has also continued to prominently collaborate with queer artists, such as Carlile and Troye Sivan, while MUNA and King Princess joined her on tour last year. Musgrave and Morris’s very public allyship, particularly to drag artists in a time when the art is under the conservative media microscope, are just two examples that prove heterosexual artists can be bold in supporting the LGBTQ+ community without wide consequence to their country career.
However, a lack of wide consequence is not equivalent to a lack of pushback. Shortly after Musgraves released “Follow Your Arrow,” Colorado pastor Kevin Swanson went viral in his hostility, accusing the singer of “promoting homosexuality” and noted that “she would have been killed” for releasing that song in an earlier era. Homophobic country fans flooded her social media comments and inboxes, and Morris faced a similar tidal wave of resistance. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, a controversial conservative political commentator, caught wind of the Aldean drama and, live on his show, called Morris "a lunatic" and "some kind of fake country music singer" — as if allyship and the country genre fundamentally cannot coexist. Yet, rather than balking, both artists remained steadfast in their allyship. Musgraves refused to back down from her subsequent GLAAD performance and Morris raised $100K for a trans youth hotline by slapping Carlson’s “lunatic” quote on a t-shirt. The changing tides of country famedom and fandom are clear, but they depend on this kind of continued support from stars in the genre despite conservative resistance.
Sidebar: Lil Nas X
It was somewhere between March 16 and March 26 of 2019 when “Old Town Road” was unexpectedly moved from Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart to Hot Rap Songs. The explanatory statement from a Billboard representative seemed flimsy at best: “[it] does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”
The backlash was immediate and sharp. As Vox columnist Allegra Frank noted, people immediately criticized Billboard for feeding into rigid limitations about who or what qualifies as “country enough.” And for many of these fans, it was not lost that Lil Nas X was an openly and proudly gay, Black kid from Atlanta. He was subverting musical stereotypes in a largely white, largely heteropatriarchal genre of music.
While the single has so far been Lil Nas X’s only dip into the country music genre, it’s clear the move had a massive cultural impact on what country is and could be. “Old Town Road” peaked at number one on the general Billboard Hot 100 for a record-breaking nineteen consecutive weeks. His label won the Music & Sound Recordings Award from SAG-AFTRA "for work that exemplifies equal access" of LGBTQ+ and "other misrepresented or underrepresented groups.” The cultural moment culminated at the Country Music Association Awards: “Old Town Road” was named “Musical Event of the Year” and Lil Nas X became the first openly gay black musician in history to take home a win from the ceremony.
Lil Nas X’s career has largely remained in rap and pop, where he continues to subvert industry norms through unapologetic dress, dancing, and representation. But just for one summer, he was a cowboy – and the queer community in country music remains better off for it.
Sidebar: Dolly Parton
"Why can't they be as miserable as us heterosexuals in their marriages?" This line from Dolly Parton just last year on an Australian radio program, speaking in support of efforts for marriage equality in Australia, deftly summarizes the exact kind of allyship the country legend has brought to her craft and public persona for years. Her lighthearted and non-judgemental support is no less bold as it is country and Christian. Parton describes her allyship as not despite her faith, but guided by it.
Parton’s support for the queer community has spanned decades, back to the 1991 release of her song, “Family.” While the lyrics would be banal in today’s world – “Some are preachers / some are gay … But not-a-one is turned away when it's family" — this was both incredibly early and explicit support in country and the broader music industry, with a Christian artist framing being gay as equally acceptable to being a preacher. Her allyship has again and again been reaffirmed. In a 2009 interview during the fight for marriage equality in the States, she refuted the notion that being a country artist from Tennessee would make her unaccepting of the issue: “‘Sure, why can’t they get married? They should suffer like the rest of us do.”
The trans community has not been left behind in Parton’s advocacy. In 2005, she received an Academy Award nomination for her song “Travelin’ Thru,” a heartwarming contribution to a film about trans joy and self-love called Transamerica. Along with publicly criticizing anti-transgender bathroom bans and including trans drag artists in her performances, the “Iron Butterfly” has continued to use her faith as a divine mandate for complete acceptance and safety for trans people to be who they are. Parton has worked to actively and publicly redefine the relationship between country, Christianity, and queerness in many instances over decades, earning her much love and respect among the queer community.
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