Melissa Etheridge has opened up about the homophobia she faced in her early career.
Etheridge famously came out as gay in 1993 at an LGBTQ+ event to mark Bill Clinton's inauguration, flanked by K.D Lang.
Five years earlier, as she prepared to release her debut album, a record label exec had asked what she was "gonna do about the gay thing", she told Spin .
“I was like: ‘What do you mean? I’m not gonna pretend I’m something else. I’m not going to go find a guy to take pictures with, and pretend he’s my boyfriend. I’m not gonna do that. I’m gonna be me,'' Etheridge recalled.
The unnamed boss reportedly answered: "As long as you don’t flag wave.”
While she wasn't out at the time, Etheridge was a regular performer at lesbian bars.
Her debut, Melissa Etheridge, was released in 1988. Its follow-up, Yes I Am, came in September 1993, just a few months after her coming out.
It spent 138 weeks on the Billboard 200 and solidified Etheridge as a household name.
Melissa Etheridge's 1993 single "Come to My Window," from the Yes I Am album, contains the lyrics: "I don't care what they think. I don't care what they say. What do they know about this love, anyway?"
The singer has long been a hero for the lesbian community , and has won two Grammy awards for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, in 1993 and 1995 – the latter for a performance of "Come to My Window".
She has also received five GLAAD awards , with another four nominations, and "I Need to Wake Up" won the 2006 Oscar for Best Original Song. She also a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hopefully, that music executive has been paying attention.
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