A Gay Old Time! [Funk Radio E108]

Today we share a few musical artists and songs that made a positive impact in the gay community during the 70s and early 80s, a time when being openly homosexual was generally frowned upon.

---

  

---

With this topic we originally wanted to find musicians & singers who were “in the closet” back in the day, when being public about their sexuality could have very well meant the end of their career. It turns out those are pretty hard to find (within the genres we typically focus on) however we did find some examples of ones who were actually really open about being gay and were no less popular because of it, which we think is pretty awesome. Not to mention a few specific songs that heterosexual artists wrote as a nod the gay community, who in turn helped those songs become major mainstream hits that we still remember today (and might not have otherwise!). Gay rights still have a ways to go in our modern world, but we can probably all agree that being “out” is a lot more socially acceptable today than it was a few decades ago. Wherever you happen to lie on the sexuality spectrum, we invite you to listen and learn a few funky facts!