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In a 2005 interview with AfterEllen, Gore revealed that she never felt she had to come out because she was living her life in the open. Bad Guy - Freddie Mercury
Psst! Lil Nas X has since released multiple unabashedly queer songs and music videos that have gained him genre-spanning success, including Billboard chart-toppers like "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" and "Industry Baby."
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Janis Joplin
One of the many musicians from the 1960s who infused soul with rock, Janis Joplin remains cherished decades later.
In 2024, her song "Good Luck, Babe!" became her first Billboard hit, drawing new attention to her slept-on 2023 album "The Rise and Fall of the Midwest Princess" and eventually helping her earn a 2025 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. That generation lives on—but no longer in the shadows of silence and secrecy that once confined them; queer musicians are louder than ever.
Despite the strides of music's greatest forebears, it's vital to continue encouraging LGBTQ+ visibility in the music industry.
The most famous of her songs to reference her sexuality, "Prove It on Me Blues," proclaims: "I mean to follow everywhere she goes/ Folks say I'm crooked/ I didn't know where she took it/ I want the whole world to know."
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Rich Fury // Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Lady Gaga
Quickly becoming a gay icon for her pop hits about self-love and sensuality, Lady Gaga came out as bisexual in a 2009 interview with Barbara Walters.
Read the Exclusive Interview
May-June 2009
guitarist/transgender-rights activist SUZY WEDGE of Suzy Wedge and the Waves
Robert Urban interviews British Columbia, Canada area rock guitarist SUZY WEDGE for Gay Guitarists Worldwide.
Vincent
Deemed "the queer rockstar [this] generation has been waiting for" by GLAAD, St. Vincent's funk-rock songs feel like a blast from the past. Then, during a concert that same year, the pop sensation revealed that her hit song "Poker Face" was about sleeping with a man while fantasizing about women. Lady Gaga remains a vocal LGBTQ+ advocate—she used her 2025 Grammy Award acceptance speech to spotlight the transgender community, saying, "Trans people deserve love.
Read the Exclusive Interview
June 2008
bassist/guitarist songwriter/singer
DON HARVEY
Robert Urban interviews DON
for Gay Guitarists Worldwide.
Post info on guitars/amps to buy or sell. While she once called the music industry "totally homophobic," she also said, "I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do."
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Rich Polk/Penske Media // Getty Images
Reneé Rapp
One of the true rising stars on our list, Reneé Rapp first found fans when she starred as Regina George in the musical "Mean Girls" on Broadway and in the 2024 movie adaptation.
In a 1995 interview with The Advocate, Ian explained that she had been outed by the Village Voice in 1976, but wanted to talk about her lesbian identity on her own terms.
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Taylor Hill // Getty Images
Chappell Roan
Few artists have exploded as quickly as Chappell Roan has.
Roan officially came out as a lesbian in a 2024 interview with Rolling Stone, but she hadn't been all that quiet about her LGBTQ+ identity before then. He then came out as bisexual in 2023. When asked about her sexuality in 2018 during an interview with the New York Times, Jett referred to a pendant she was wearing: two axes crossing each other, inside of two women symbols crossing each other.
lang is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter. Read the Exclusive Interview
November 2007
guitarist
DONNA AUSTIN
Robert Urban interviews DONNA AUSTIN
for Gay Guitarists Worldwide. Homepage photo rotates as we feature a different glbt player each month.
Autumn 2010
singer/songwriter/guitarist MARLEE WALCHUK of Sugarbeach
Robert Urban interviews Vancouver Canada-based MARLEE WALCHUK for Gay Guitarists Worldwide.