Thursday, April 07, 2011

Lesbian Country Stars

The innocence of Chely Wright

I always thought that the world of country music was the last bastion of masculine men and feminine women, but here is an article on  reasonably well-known country star Chely Wright who "came out" as a lesbian, and is now set to marry her "girl friend" - sorry for all those scare quotes.

Looking at their photo together here, there is something devious and evil about the girl friend Lauren Blitzer. I often wonder in such unholy situations if there isn't an innocent party, where one member of the couple somehow, deviously, convinces the other to join in with the aberration. But innocence can be a sin too. It can be like a curtain drawn against life, and a refusal to participate in it, and to refuse to learn (or learn to recognize) all that can be harmful.

The country music world seems to be going out of its way not to sound homophobic, and Nashville has sympathetic information about her, even promoting a documentary on her "lifestyle" which the website Nashville.com describes as:
[A] personal and intimate look at Chely Wright, the first country music star to come out as openly gay, despite what some people in the industry have referred to as a career-ending decision.