Celebrate the music of Black LGBTQ+ joy with Queerty’s Black History Month playlist
Check out some of the iconic musical moments from LGBTQ+ Black history:Long before the appropriative concept of the “hey mamas” lesbian was born, the Black butch “B.D.” woman was singing her blues.
Alongside other queer women singers like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, Lucille Bogan (sometimes singing as Bessie Jackson) was helping bring about a new musical era.This campy pop vocal duo made their mark not despite their overt homosexuality, but because of it.
Underneath the novelty surface that straight audiences admired them for was undeniable talent and unabashed queer fun.Before the homophobic whitelash that was the “Disco sucks” movement, flamboyant and energetic artists like Sylvester ran the feel-good club nights of the ’70s.Even before being out as a queer woman, Queen Latifah was flexing both masculinity and femininity as her power.
She sought to unify the culture past lines of gender or sex, a unity she already carried just in the swagger of her walk.Tyler, the Creator informally came out through the “Garden Shed” track on this same album — or at least, informally came out again — but it’s this trio of him and fellow Black and bi musicians Frank Ocean and Steve Lacy.
