I have spent the past 3 decades navigating the music industry as an out, gay man who writes and releases songs and videos about life and love as a queer person. I first got signed in 1999 and suffice to say, they weren’t ready back then. When my major label debut came out 10 years later, they still weren’t ready.

Fast forward all these years later and, while the landscape of music has changed and a lot of things have gotten better for a lot of us — myself included — most of the same barriers that LGBTQ+ bands and artists face still persist (and some fun new ones have arrived!)

During this time when queer and trans people are being silenced, while our communities are under attack by the systems in place to protect us, as the robot overlords threaten to replace us and our government attempts to erase us, I am dialing my mission to platform LGBTQ+ voices ALL THE WAY UP.

Queer and trans art is the antidote. I am not going to shrink away because they want me to. I will not die because I am told my life is an inconvenience. And I refuse to let these motherfuckers take the culture.

Queer and Trans people belong in the music industry.

QUEER AND TRANS PEOPLE BELONG.

“I like this idea that sometimes you can inherit a gay from your mother. Sometimes that happens. Like ‘Baby, you remember uncle Ron? Well, he got a D.U.I. so he’s gonna babysit you from now on.’ The magic of the relationship between an old gay man and a little girl is, like, the best friendship that you could possibly have on earth. They will watch Twilight as many times as you want and they will play Barbies with you and they don’t have to be Ken. It’s like ‘Girl, I wanna be Skipper!’ and it’s the most beautiful thing, so I wanna really acknowledge that, and call out that one relationship that I know exists. There’s never been a movie about it. There’s never been a TV show about it, like that generational comedy between this really old gay man and this really little girl. It’s such a funny thing. It could be a crime duo! The closest thing to it is Paper Moon but that’s not even really it. Really old gay and really little girl is such a perfect combination of personalities, so I’m really trying to explore that.” – Margaret Cho

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MARGARET CHO x LOGAN LYNN
for Portland Queer Voices blog series (2013)

(Photo by Nick Spanos)