Girls Like Girls By Hayley Kiyoko
I hadn’t actually heard this song until quite recently and I’m so glad I did, it is a fun pop anthem that deals with the idea of a girl stealing another man’s girl. The reason for not hearing it upon its initial release is because I was very much deep into punk music and also, I had a child under 1, which isn’t conducive of hearing new music, or remembering anything from that time period. But it feels amazing to hear more songs like this on the radio and appreciated by the mainstream.
Girls Like Girls was released as a part of Hayley Kiyoko’s second EP This Side of Paradise released 3rd February 2015. Before being released as a single that June. Kiyoko is an openly Queer singer and actress, identifying as a lesbian, coming out to her parents in sixth grade, before finally going public after the release of this song. Like myself, Kiyoko took great inspiration from Tegan and Sara along with Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl, taking comfort in that part of ourselves being represented in pop music. She has said “If you see two girls falling in love and normalizing that, then [people] can go, ‘I can fall in love, too. I can be that person. I can look like that. I can get a girl that looks like that.’ If they see that, then they can believe it. It’s just how we are.”
Fast Car By Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter who came to prominence due to her hugely popular song Fast Car. She has never disclosed her sexual orientation, writer Alex Walker reviled that the two had been romantically involved in the 90s, meaning that Chapman is a black queer woman. She is very adamant at keeping her work and personal life separate saying “I have a public life that’s my work life and I have my personal life, in some ways, the decision to keep the two things separate relates to the work I do.”
Chapman is politically and socially active identifying as a feminist while donating her time and supporting such causes as AIDS/LifeCycle, Amnesty International, Make Poverty History, and amfAR. She has also sponsored an essay writing contest for high school students known as Crossroads in Black History. Fast Car is a folk-rock song that is politically and socially charged in its lyrics. It was released on 6th April 1988 and tells the story of a woman in poverty who works and wants to escape her life and cycle of poverty she in, encouraging either a lover or friend to leave the homeless shelter they live in and move to the big city. Chapman doesn’t state in the song if the other character is a male or female, making it an inclusive song for all.
Born This Way by Lady Gaga
Born This Way is a synth-pop tour deforce with electronic dance beats and lyrical content that is all about exploring and expressing who you are. The song is heavily inspired by the female empowerment anthems of the 90s as well as the gay community, who have been huge supporters of her work since the beginning. This song was a ground-breaking moment for me and many queer kids, seeing and hearing a song that celebrates who we are in the mainstream, Gaga as a bisexual woman has always actively supported the LGBTQ community making her a gay icon.
The song was released on 11th February 2011 and was the lead single off the album of the same name [23rd May 2011]. Gaga has described it as her freedom song stating “I want to write my this-is-who-the-fuck-I-am anthem, but I don’t want it to be hidden in poetic wizardry and metaphors. I want it to be an attack, an assault on the issue because I think, especially in today’s music, everything gets kind of washy sometimes and the message gets hidden in the lyrical play. Harkening back to the early ’90s, when Madonna, En Vogue, Whitney Houston, and TLC were making very empowering music for women and the gay community and all kinds of disenfranchised communities, the lyrics and the melodies were very poignant and very gospel and very spiritual and I said, ‘That’s the kind of record I need to make. That’s the record that’s going to shake up the industry.’ It’s not about the track. It’s not about the production. It’s about the song. Anyone could sing ‘Born This Way’. It could’ve been anyone”.
Make Me Feel by Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe is a singer, songwriter, and producer who identifies as both pansexual and bisexual while being an advocate for LGBTQ rights and a huge supporter of the community. In January 2020 Monáe tweeted out the hashtag #IAmNonbinary in support of Nonbinary Day and to bring more awareness to the community at large. Even though she uses She/her pronouns currently she has said “I retweeted the Steven Universe meme ‘Are you a boy or a girl? I’m an experience’ because it resonated with me, especially as someone who has pushed boundaries of gender since the beginning of my career. I feel my feminine energy, my masculine energy, and energy I can’t even explain.”
Make Me Feel was released on 22nd February 2018 as the first single off her third album Dirty Computer. It has a dirty funky feel reminiscent of Prince, who did help create sounds for the album including for this song specifically. It deals with the idea of love and sexuality, exploring deep connections as well as the need to enjoy the experience of it all. It’s her second single as a lead artist to make it into the US Billboard Hot 100. Everyone should be listening to Janelle Monáe, but maybe I’m a little bit biased.
Vogue by Madonna
Growing up I was always surrounded by Madonna, my mum is a big fan of her work and was a teenager during the 80’s so for me I was surrounded by a lot of Dance, House, and surprisingly Queer anthems. I often joke with her that this is why 2 out of 3 of her kids are a part of the LGBTQ community. Vogue holds a place in my heart due to the inclusion of queer culture, dance, and of course, classic movies, encapsulating many different sides to who I am as a person.
The song was inspired by the gay community of New York City where House Balls would take place and voguing was popular. The song has a house dance beat with 70’s disco elements, while lyrically it explores the themes of escapism and about enjoying oneself no matter what. Many are queer icons, from the Golden Age of cinema, within the LGBTQ community are mentioned within the spoken rap part of the song. The stars included are Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Grace Kelly, Jean Harlow, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall, Lana Turner, and Bette Davis.
Did You Know? Pride Has Always Been In Hollywood
Greta Garbo, who biographers have suggested may have been bisexual or a lesbian. She had relationships with men but would never commit to marriage or children, but silent film star Louise Brooks stated that they had a lesion in 1928. Other notable instances of the possibility of romantic feelings towards women include writer and lesbian Mercedes de Acosta who Garbo wrote, over the course of 30 years, 181 letters, cards, and telegrams. Mimi Pollak was a Swedish actress and theatre director with who Garbo corresponded, she once wrote “We cannot help our nature, as God has created it. But I have always thought you and I belonged together”.
Marlene Dietrich was fluent in three languages, German, English, and French, and identified as bisexual. She would enjoy gay bars and drag balls of 1920s Berlin while also defying conventional gender roles. She wore trousers and suites while also training in boxing. She was married once and had one child. She would also have many affairs with both men and women, including Mexican Actress Lupe Velez, Suzanna Baule, AKA Frede, Cuban American writer Mercedes de Acosta and French writer Edith Piaf. There was also an underground network of closeted lesbian and bisexual actresses, dubbed Marlene’s Sewing Circle, included Ann Warner, Lili Damita, Claudette Colbert, and Dolores del Rio.
Marlon Brando was a man who had a tumultuous personal life, having many partners and as many as 11 children. There have been many rumors over the years that he had sexual relationships with men, including Richard Pryor and Wally Cox, who Brando stated: “If Wally had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after”. In 1976, Brando would admit to homosexual activity in an interview with a French journalist saying “Homosexuality is so much in fashion, it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed. I have never paid much attention to what people think about me. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing.”
Jimmy Dean/James Dean supposedly experimented sexually while at UCLA and during his time in New York, his friend, roommate, screenwriter, and known homosexual William Bast, claimed in one of his books on the life of James Dean that they had done things together but never went into details. With the long list of women, Dean also dated he could at the very least have been bisexual. When he signed his contract with Warner Brothers, he would be grouped with two other eligible bachelors, Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter who were both gay men.
Kathern Hepburn may have been gender-fluid due to in her younger years cutting her hair short and insisting she should be called Jimmy, it has also been suggested that Hepburn may have been a lesbian or at the very least bisexual.
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