Looking back on the early days of LGBTQ2 rock

Music can be a very powerful thing when it comes to changing the world. Rock has been used to spread political and social messages. It has been used to enlighten, to educate, to motivate, and to protest.
These are the stories of musicians who weren't afraid of admitting to their sexuality when society wasn't ready to hear it. Pride Month is the perfect time to recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by various LGBTQ2 musicians during the era when you just didn't talk about who you loved.
I'll start by posing this question, although you know the answer, but I'll ask it anyway. What do the following people have in common? Tchaikovsky, Handel, Schubert, George Gershwin, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Freddie Mercury, B-52's singer Fred Schneider, Morrissey, punk legend Bob Mould, and Michael Stipe of R.E.M.?
Here are a few more: Pioneering pre-rock guitarist sister Rosetta Tharp, Janis Joplin, Joan Jett, Mellisa Etheridge, Tegan and Sara, and St. Vincent.
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All of the above — and many, many more — identify as gay, non-binary, bisexual, or someone LGBTQ2.
Who was the first rocker to come out of the closet? A good pick would be Little Richard, although he battled with his sexuality throughout his life. His image was always campy and fabulous and the original uncensored lyrics to his hit 'Tutti Frutti' leave little doubt. But in 1957, right in the middle of an Australian tour, he had a crisis of faith after claiming to have dreamt of his own damnation, much of which had to do with being gay. He quit the music business and never again reached the rights he achieved in the 1950s.
The next major coming-out was David Bowie. He's been sporadically attracting attention since 1964 when he appeared on British TV as the spokesperson for a made-up organization known as The International League for the Preservation of Animal Filament. He was just 17 at the time.
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But Bowie had just started. In January 1970, he became one of the first pop stars to be interviewed by Jeremy, a gay magazine. The article had nothing to do with his sexuality, but the very fact that he appeared in a gay magazine was very radical. Just three years earlier, you could still be sent to prison for being a homosexual.
Ten months later, the cover of his The Man Who Sold the World album featured Bowie lounging in a long flowing blue dress designed by a man known as Mr. Fish. This was the most feminized male image of a rock star the world had ever seen. Many record stores (especially in the U.S.) refused to display or even stock the record, necessitating the release of a version with alternate artwork. Even so, the record sold less than 1,500 copies in America between November 1970 and June 1971. Such was the state of the world then.
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The real shock came in the Jan. 22, 1972, issue of Melody Maker, one of the U.K.'s big weekly music magazines when Bowie stated, 'I'm gay and always have been.' It was largely a publicity stunt to set up the debut of his Ziggy Stardust character. But for certain people, the effect of those words was incalculable. Ziggy's androgynous bisexuality, makeup, and glitter (along with what was described as a lewd performance on Top of the Pops) offered hope to closeted people around the planet.
Story continues below advertisement
Yet Bowie (via Ziggy) wasn't the world's first openly gay rock star. We might look to Lou Reed, whose parents sent him for electro-shock therapy as a teenager as a way to exorcise what they feared were 'homosexual tendencies.'
In 1972, after leaving The Velvet Underground, he adopted a very glam image, wearing S&M and fetish gear, hair bleached almost white, and black painted fingernails. His songs often explored the kinky side of life, including 'Walk on the Wild Side,' a top 40 hit that told the story of some of the more colourful real-life characters in Andy Warhol's world: Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn, Joe Dallesandro, and Joe 'Sugar Plum Fairy' Campbell.
Even though Lou married a woman in 1973, many just supposed he was gay. Was he? Certainly bisexual at the very least, but he never was public about it.
Story continues below advertisement
The first rock singer to be unambiguous about being gay was Jobriath. Born Bruce Campbell, he was a former member of a forgotten California band called Pigeon. From there, he got into musical theatre, performing in productions of Hair. He was also a part-time drug addict and occasional rent boy.
In the early 1970s, he acquired a manager named Jerry Brandt who almost immediately struck a half-million-dollar deal with Elektra Records. His debut album was recorded with help from Peter Frampton and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. To launch the record, Elektra paid for a $200,000 billboard of a nearly-nude Jobriath in the middle of Times Square. Full-page ads appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and even Penthouse.
Another $200,000 was spent on a stage production that was supposed to open at the Paris Opera House, which included a 40-foot model of the Empire State Building that was supposed to symbolize…well, you know. And in interviews, Jobriath referred to himself as 'a true fairy.'
Story continues below advertisement
But it all came crashing down. The Paris shows never happened, and after two poorly-selling albums, Jobriath disappeared. He bounced between New York and Los Angeles, not doing much of anything because of a punishing iron-clad managerial contract. By the early '80s, his bathhouse habits caught up to him and he contracted HIV/AIDs. He died on Aug. 3, 1987, one week after his 10-year contract with Jerry Brandt expired.
Years later, thanks mostly to a contingent of fans who discovered him after his death — Morrissey is one of his great admirers and promoters — the world came to know about Jobriath's contribution to LGBTQ2 history.
We need to acknowledge a few others. A British folk-rock band called Everyone Involved sang a few pro-gay songs as early as 1972. There's a 1973 song by Chris Robinson entitled 'Looking for a Boy Tonight.' A German band, Flying Lesbians, appeared briefly in 1975. Steve Grossman was an openly gay folk-blues singer in the '70s. And in 1978, The Gay/Lesbian Freedom Band, which billed itself as the first openly gay musical organization in the world, was founded in San Francisco.
One of the great things about '70s punk rock was the concept that music belonged to everyone and that anyone should be able to make music, regardless of age, economic background, musical ability, gender, or sexual orientation. Punk allowed gay performers such as Pete Shelley of The Buzzcocks, Elton Motello, Jayne (formerly Wayne) County, and Ricky Wilson of The B-52's (who tragically may be the first rock performer to die of AIDS).
Story continues below advertisement
There were others, too. While no one in the New York Dolls was gay (at least we don't think so), they were the first band to really push androgyny as part of their image with makeup, big hair, and of course, plenty of spandex (history records that they seem to have been the first group to perform in spandex.) Big Boys were a Texas punk band into skateboarding long before it was mainstream. Frontman Randy 'Biscuit' Turner was loudly and proudly out. New Wave took the campy elements of disco and featured hundreds of techno-pop acts with effeminate men and androgynous performers.
By the early '80s, many bravely played up their sexuality. Think Boy George of Culture Club, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Canada's Carole Pope in Rough Trade, a name taken from gay subculture. She was up front about being a lesbian. 'Yeah, I've got different ideas about sex. You wanna make something of it?' Pretty bold stuff for dull, boring, conservative Canada.
Story continues below advertisement
As the '80s faded into the '90s, projections and demonstrations of non-heterosexuality became mainstream. There's still homophobia and prejudice, but most music fans today could care less about whether a performer is gay, straight, queer, or trans. And we wouldn't have arrived here if it were not for those brave early pioneers.
Happy Pride, everyone.

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Looking back on the early days of LGBTQ2 rock

Music can be a very powerful thing when it comes to changing the world. Rock has been used to spread political and social messages. It has been used to enlighten, to educate, to motivate, and to protest. These are the stories of musicians who weren't afraid of admitting to their sexuality when society wasn't ready to hear it. Pride Month is the perfect time to recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by various LGBTQ2 musicians during the era when you just didn't talk about who you loved. I'll start by posing this question, although you know the answer, but I'll ask it anyway. What do the following people have in common? Tchaikovsky, Handel, Schubert, George Gershwin, Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Freddie Mercury, B-52's singer Fred Schneider, Morrissey, punk legend Bob Mould, and Michael Stipe of R.E.M.? Here are a few more: Pioneering pre-rock guitarist sister Rosetta Tharp, Janis Joplin, Joan Jett, Mellisa Etheridge, Tegan and Sara, and St. Vincent. Story continues below advertisement All of the above — and many, many more — identify as gay, non-binary, bisexual, or someone LGBTQ2. Who was the first rocker to come out of the closet? A good pick would be Little Richard, although he battled with his sexuality throughout his life. His image was always campy and fabulous and the original uncensored lyrics to his hit 'Tutti Frutti' leave little doubt. But in 1957, right in the middle of an Australian tour, he had a crisis of faith after claiming to have dreamt of his own damnation, much of which had to do with being gay. He quit the music business and never again reached the rights he achieved in the 1950s. The next major coming-out was David Bowie. He's been sporadically attracting attention since 1964 when he appeared on British TV as the spokesperson for a made-up organization known as The International League for the Preservation of Animal Filament. He was just 17 at the time. Story continues below advertisement But Bowie had just started. In January 1970, he became one of the first pop stars to be interviewed by Jeremy, a gay magazine. The article had nothing to do with his sexuality, but the very fact that he appeared in a gay magazine was very radical. Just three years earlier, you could still be sent to prison for being a homosexual. Ten months later, the cover of his The Man Who Sold the World album featured Bowie lounging in a long flowing blue dress designed by a man known as Mr. Fish. This was the most feminized male image of a rock star the world had ever seen. Many record stores (especially in the U.S.) refused to display or even stock the record, necessitating the release of a version with alternate artwork. Even so, the record sold less than 1,500 copies in America between November 1970 and June 1971. Such was the state of the world then. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The real shock came in the Jan. 22, 1972, issue of Melody Maker, one of the U.K.'s big weekly music magazines when Bowie stated, 'I'm gay and always have been.' It was largely a publicity stunt to set up the debut of his Ziggy Stardust character. But for certain people, the effect of those words was incalculable. Ziggy's androgynous bisexuality, makeup, and glitter (along with what was described as a lewd performance on Top of the Pops) offered hope to closeted people around the planet. Story continues below advertisement Yet Bowie (via Ziggy) wasn't the world's first openly gay rock star. We might look to Lou Reed, whose parents sent him for electro-shock therapy as a teenager as a way to exorcise what they feared were 'homosexual tendencies.' In 1972, after leaving The Velvet Underground, he adopted a very glam image, wearing S&M and fetish gear, hair bleached almost white, and black painted fingernails. His songs often explored the kinky side of life, including 'Walk on the Wild Side,' a top 40 hit that told the story of some of the more colourful real-life characters in Andy Warhol's world: Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn, Joe Dallesandro, and Joe 'Sugar Plum Fairy' Campbell. Even though Lou married a woman in 1973, many just supposed he was gay. Was he? Certainly bisexual at the very least, but he never was public about it. Story continues below advertisement The first rock singer to be unambiguous about being gay was Jobriath. Born Bruce Campbell, he was a former member of a forgotten California band called Pigeon. From there, he got into musical theatre, performing in productions of Hair. He was also a part-time drug addict and occasional rent boy. In the early 1970s, he acquired a manager named Jerry Brandt who almost immediately struck a half-million-dollar deal with Elektra Records. His debut album was recorded with help from Peter Frampton and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. To launch the record, Elektra paid for a $200,000 billboard of a nearly-nude Jobriath in the middle of Times Square. Full-page ads appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and even Penthouse. Another $200,000 was spent on a stage production that was supposed to open at the Paris Opera House, which included a 40-foot model of the Empire State Building that was supposed to symbolize…well, you know. And in interviews, Jobriath referred to himself as 'a true fairy.' Story continues below advertisement But it all came crashing down. 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And we wouldn't have arrived here if it were not for those brave early pioneers. Happy Pride, everyone.

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While Kinden hasn't read the Harry Potter books herself, her partner grew up reading the series, but became 'very conflicted' when the author started ramping up her anti-trans rhetoric. 'Let's make something productive and delicious out of something that maybe was created with a bit of hate towards trans folks,' Kinden says. Kinden connected with Tom Nagy of River City Mushrooms, who sells mushrooms and grow kits, to throw their own event to decompose the Harry Potter books while raising awareness about the ways Rowling is harming the trans community. Instagram An a U.K. event hosted by books were made into mushroom grow kits. Growing mushrooms from books isn't a new trend, Nagy explains. A waterlogged old paperback novel can break down the same way as a damp, rotten log and create the perfect conditions for fungi. The metaphor of the process isn't lost on Nagy. He views mushrooms as nature's recycling program and as symbols for the cyclical nature of life and death. 'They're essentially initiating the future by decomposing the past. You're taking a perspective or ideology that doesn't really match with what people are realizing about human nature and society and transforming it into something different,' he says. Hearing about the Turf the TERF event, Mavis Reimer, a University of Winnipeg English professor and the director for the Centre for Research in Young People's Texts and Cultures, chuckles. 'It strikes me as a really smart protest. It's a gentle and pretty peaceful protest,' says Reimer, who studies children's literature and its impact on media and pop culture. Destroying books has been a routine protest against literature throughout history. When Indian-British author Salman Rushdie published The Satanic Verses in 1988, it ignited book burnings, death threats and protests across the Muslim world, owing to its perceived blasphemy. However, Reimer sees the mushroom workshop as a nuanced revision of book protests. While book burnings are usually spearheaded by people holding power to create a spectacle that can instil fear in onlookers, she says this protest focuses on repurposing and recycling the books. 'Growing is such a quiet metaphor, and it's a slow metaphor, and it's a metaphor of changing something into something else. When you use the books to grow mushrooms, those particular physical books are destroyed, but they're actually commuted and transformed into something else,' she says. 'Gardening with Harry Potter books is different to burning Harry Potter books.' Strong reactions such as this happen because words and stories are powerful, says Reimer. Often in children's literature, a book's author is more connected to the text than other genres, as authors often do readings in schools and book talks aimed at kids when a new novel is released, she says. It's difficult to separate the art from the artist when someone with Rowling's notoriety doesn't try to distance herself from the franchise — especially financially, Reimer says. Celebrity culture blurs the lines even more; Rowling was an early adopter of social media channels and has a following of millions of people. Instagram An edition of Harry Potter is prepped to eventually sprout mushrooms at a U.K. event. Kinden says she can't separate Rowling from her work because the author has dedicated money earned from the Harry Potter franchise to take away trans rights. In response to a 2022 comment criticizing her transphobic stances, Rowling posted on X: 'I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.' Rowling also began using the wealth generated from her books to influence policy. When the author introduced the spellbinding world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1997, it was met with meteoric success. The franchise spawned online fandoms, video games and films — all of which fed into the commercial success of the books; Rowling has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, according to Forbes. In 2024, U.K. newspaper The Telegraph reported Rowling donated at least 70,000 pounds to For Women Scotland, an anti-trans feminist group, when it challenged a U.K. Supreme Court ruling that said biological men could legally become women and share legal protections. Monthly What you need to know now about gardening in Winnipeg. An email with advice, ideas and tips to keep your outdoor and indoor plants growing. In April, the court subsequently passed a ruling limiting the definition of a woman to biological sex and excluding trans women from discrimination protections. In response to the ruling, Rowling posted on X: 'I love it when a plan comes together' with a picture of herself smoking a cigar and holding a cocktail. Former fan Lyttle believes Rowling's actions overrule any legacy the books had, because she's denying trans people their humanity. 'A mushroom isn't less valuable than this book. We've just decided that a mushroom is more valuable than this possession,' he says. 'It's better as fuel for something new and beautiful than as something we look at that makes us sad.'