LGBTQ+ Artists Reclaim Country Music At Dorothy To Celebrate Pride Month
Although there have always been LGBTQ+ country artists, the genre and its most popular radio stations have long been dominated by straight white men crooning about lost love, beer and trucks. Gay country has gotten more attention in recent years with openly LGBTQ+ performers like Orville Peck and Cheley Tackett and the enormous hit that was Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road.”But it’s Chicagoans’ work that will be on display during Country Pride. Dorothy’s Country Pride performers represent a variety of flavors of country music, including THEM Queers, a folk-punk band that dabbles in tapdancing; #QueerCountry Bandwagon, which covers country songs with queer themes or written by queer artists; and Iris Marlowe, who creates cinematic, Southern gothic songs driven by yearning for the danger of the Old West.