Glam Singer Jake Wesley Rogers on History, Queering Up Religion
Pluto, released in October of last year, pops with salmon hues and a celebration of queer love in a distinct nod to the classic gay film Pink Narcissus.
The haunting black-and-white video for his song “Momentary” pays homage to LGBTQ+ luminaries including Marsha P. Johnson and Oscar Wilde as a funeral procession heads to the top of a mountain where Rogers is splayed on a cross resembling a glamorous blackbird adorned in lace, tulle, and flowers.But there’s no willful blaspheming in Rogers’s religious iconography.
It’s an act of love for the 25-year-old to dig into the Christianity that surrounded him growing up in Ozark, Mo.“I just grew up with [religion] all around me.
It was kind of my lens for learning what it means to love and be human,” Rogers says. “When I was able to step away from it and kind of wash myself of the bullshit and come back and be more of an observer [of it] and see myself on my terms, it’s profound.”He continues, “The reason I wanted to be on the cross in that video, it was less of I want to do this to be edgy and piss people off.
