# Music groups with openly gay members? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 27, 2005, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899 "2005-11-27T07:47:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/1 "2005-11-27T07:47:44Z")
A friend and I were discussing this the other day. Why, I don’t know. The stipulation that she put on it was that it applied to males only. I’ve decided to open the forum up to include females. Solo artists count, to. We came up with: Elton John Queen (Freddie Mercury) Frankie Goes to Hollywood (Paul Rutherford, isn’t it?) REM (Mike Stipe) Judas Priest/Fight (Rob Halford) Rufus Wainwright Pet Shop Boys Along the female lines, I know of: Indigo Girls Melissa Etheridge Jill Sobule There are a few more I can’t think of. Feel free to add more. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/2 "2005-11-27T07:52:10Z")
Hello? The Village People? C’mon! How could you miss _them_? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/3 "2005-11-27T07:54:20Z")
Husker du, and all of Bob Mould’s or Grant Hart’s later projects. Not to mention the Village People and about eight gazillion disco or techno bands. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/4 "2005-11-27T08:07:20Z")
Culture Club and k. d. lang I don’t know much about the Dandy Warhols, but the video for “I Never Thought You’d Be a Junkie Because Heroin is So Passe” hit all the “camp aesthetic” cylinders. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/5 "2005-11-27T08:08:43Z")
George Michael wasn’t out yet when he was in **Wham** , but he did “make it big” in a bathroom stall eventually and got caught. ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/6 "2005-11-27T08:18:27Z")
George Michael. Ani DiFranco’s bisexual. And there was that Russian fake lesbian band a few years ago, Tatu. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/7 "2005-11-27T08:23:04Z")
I’ve heard a _lot_ of rumours about Joan Jett. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/8 "2005-11-27T08:39:07Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Hello? The Village People? C’mon! How could you miss _them_? Except that almost all of them were straight. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/9 "2005-11-27T08:41:27Z")
Supposedly everyone in Rammstein is gay; though not having looked into it (nor caring much) I have no idea whether it is true nor whether they open about it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/10 "2005-11-27T08:46:08Z")
- Roddy Bottum (Faith No More/Imperial Teen) - Pansy Division (An all-gay punk band. Their version of an AC/DC classic was redone as “For Those About To Suck Cock (We Salute You)” and Hirk Hammet from Metallica guested on it!) - Morrissey (solo & The Smiths) - Jobriah (billed as “the first openly gay rock star;” he was, in fact, gay - however, he wasn’t much of a “star.” That said, his two LPs are an interesting listen if you are a fan of Ziggy Stardyst-era Bowie and glam.) - Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields) - Scott Plouf (drummer for The Spinnanes and later Built To Spill) - Andy Bell (Erasure) - (How can anyone forget) Boy George (Culture Club) - (How can anyone forget) George Michael (solo & Wham!) That’s all I have off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/11 "2005-11-27T08:59:18Z")
Well, the Gay Men’s Chorus has a fair share. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/12 "2005-11-27T09:14:01Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Culture Club Culture Club was three-eights gay, namely Boy George and drummer Jon Moss were lovers before Moss went straight on him. Let’s add Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, and the late Ricky Wilson of the B-52s. **betenoir** , you can’t be serious about the Village People. Other than lead singer Ray Simpson (the cop), and his predecessor Victor Willis, they were gay. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/13 "2005-11-27T09:40:35Z")
Stipe came out? When was that? I suck at paying attention to pop culture. Was it in the midst of that Shiny Happy People video? I could never watch the damn thing all the way through. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/14 "2005-11-27T10:23:37Z")
[Interview](http://buttmagazine.com/Issues/9.html) with Michael Stipe in 2004: > [@](#): > > **You never declare yourself gay as such…** > > I don’t. I think there’s a line drawn between gay and queer, and for me, queer describes something that’s more inclusive of the grey areas. There are people that very strongly identify themselves as gay and then lesbian, and then I think there are a lot of people who are kind of some percentage or some version of that. But it’s really about identity I think. The identity that I’m comfortable with is queer because I just think it’s more inclusive. > > **It kind of needed an advancement almost. Probably in ’69 it was fine to say “I’m gay” because it included everything other than the mainstream, but nowadays gay has become sort of a different kind of gay mainstream, maybe.** > > Yes, but it’s also become the opposite of straight, and I think there’s all these gradations and all these shades. I really like women, but I definitely like men more. But I can’t say that I was experimenting or I didn’t know who I was when I dated women in the past. I happened to find someone whom I’m crazy about, and he’s a man… the Mister. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/15 "2005-11-27T14:30:48Z")
**Placebo** -one gay member, one bisexual member, one straight member. **Scissor Sisters** - Jake Shears and Baby Daddy are both gay, not sure about the other members. **Jim Verranos** -former American idol contestant **Will Young** -Winner of the first series of British Pop Idol **Marc Almond** - of Soft Cell. There’s always that dodgy list on Wiki: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_famous\_gay,\_lesbian\_or\_bisexual\_people](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famous_gay,_lesbian_or_bisexual_people) ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/16 "2005-11-27T14:40:06Z")
I have my suspicions about that Liberace fellow. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/17 "2005-11-27T14:42:02Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Judas Priest/Fight (Rob Halford) Didn’t Halford come out after he left JP? ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/18 "2005-11-27T15:49:32Z")
> [@John\_Stamos'\_Left\_Ear](#): > > - Morrissey (solo & The Smiths) I don’t believe Morrissey is gay. Perhaps he’s bisexual, though. I know for years, he downplayed any talk and speculation about his sexuality and claimed to be “asexual.” Hasn’t he been linked to women in the past? If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/19 "2005-11-27T15:58:39Z")
I thought that in the cases of The Village People, Queen, and Liberace, there was a sort of don’t ask, don’t tell thing going on. Even though the writing was on the wall, the subject never really came up. People just assumed they were straight. And I thought that Elton stayed in the closet for decades and only recently came out. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2005, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899/20 "2005-11-27T16:24:55Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > I don’t believe Morrissey is gay. Perhaps he’s bisexual, though. I know for years, he downplayed any talk and speculation about his sexuality and claimed to be “asexual.” Hasn’t he been linked to women in the past? If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected. I concur **BBVL** , I don’t think Morrisey has ever self-identified as gay. Didn’t Rolling Stone magazine label him as gay in the 80s and it kind of stuck? Which member of the village people was gay is a pub quiz question I’ve heard a couple of times. The answer has always been given as the bloke in the native-American outfit. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-groups-with-openly-gay-members/332899.md?page=2)