Gay gospel artist
Queering Southern Gospel: A Review of Douglas Harrison's Then Sings My Soul
The Cultural Origins of Alabaster Southern Gospel
Then Sings My Soul focuses on the culture of white southern gospel music while acknowledging the "long history of stylistic exchange and reciprocal influence" with black gospel music and their neighboring parallel commercial development during the early and middle twentieth century. A segregated society and record industry might have created pretend barriers between white and black gospel cultures, but Harrison sees both cultures as unique because their fans and performers hold interpreted gospel's meaning and spiritual function in unlike ways. He argues that the black gospel tradition emphasizes the music's heartfelt soulfulness and "spiritual improvisation" while white evangelicals utilize gospel as a proselytizing tool akin to a Protestant sermon. Black gospel, with its call-and-response design, emphasizes the "power of the individual (the soloist) within the community (the congregation or audience and singers) to assert the self idiosyncratically (improvisation). . . ." In general, the black gospel tradition "ameliorates suffering by absorbing individuals in
Who's gay in Gospel music?
I watch the Gaither Reunion shows from time to time and I hold to say there appear to be a number of flamers in the gospel world. Mark Lowry, for one.
Who else?
| by Anonymous | reply | October 25, PM |
Cynthia Clawson isn't gay but she's very gay positive, apparently. She's taken a lot of heat from the more conservative fundamentalist elements of the gospel society but she's sticking to her guns. Beautiful voice, too. Interesting that Bill Gaither chooses to contain and feature her all the time.
Vestal Goodman also loved the gays, apparently. She's seemed like a big-hearted loving sort of woman who truly loved everyone.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | December 6, AM |
Not quite gospel, but what about Mchael Tate? He pinged big hour when he was in DC Talk. So did TobyMac for that matter. Wish both would be gay.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | December 6, AM |
That guy who hosts the gospel show on BET sure seems gay.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | December 6, AM |
Kirk Talley. He admitted to sending out nude pics a few years ago because he was about to be blackmailed. Cute much ruined his career in gospel music. But now he has be 'restored' suppos
Christian Singers Who Identify as LGBTQ
Upon first mind, the notion of entity Christian and an out LGBTQ singer or entertainer is a contradiction in terms. However, there are several high profile Christian singers who have recently publicly revealed their lgbtq+ attractions, such as Australia's Jennifer Knapp or American Trey Pearson.
This remains a challenge and battle for this genre of inspirational music. The reaction to these public statements has been mixed within the community. Many of the early singers who came out were immediately sidelined within their religious community, and this effectively diminished or terminated their professional careers. Notable among these was Marsha Stevens and Ray Boltz.
Other past LGBTQ Christian singers have remained in the closet during their lifetime, but subsequent events and biographies have revealed their sexual orientation. Notable among these is the mythical gospel singer James Cleveland, recipient of four Grammy Awards and nicknamed the 'King of Gospel'. Cleveland died of AIDS in
The Gospel church and homosexuality has reportedly had a long inter-twining association. LGBTQ individuals have apparen
REVEREND JAMES CLEVELAND
Death of a Queer King
by Robin Dunn
(August )
I was a homeless, sixteen-year old runaway when two Black women in long robes and headscarves offered me a place to stay. They brought me home to a shotgun house in East Austin, where they lived communally, sheltered the homeless, and held religious services for hours on end. I'd never spent time in church, and in any case I'd never heard of one like this. With fewer than a dozen members, no sign to stamp it, no painted windows, no cross. They said they were holiness, sanctified. I arrived queer, punk, and half-feral, but the church, with its perception of purpose, sisters and brothers, and hot meals, soon felt like family, a thing I lacked. I stayed for ten years, the only light girl in an otherwise all-Black church, trying and failing to be a saint.
When I connected the church I laid sex, drugs, and rock and roll down at the altar. Gospel, the old stuff, helped pack the musical void. I found a wealth of records at the common library-Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Davis Sisters, Clara Ward, the Caravans. I mind it was better than punk. It was the root. I especially loved the Caravans, whose members--Alber
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