QUEER COUNTRY: The Revolution Will Be Twang-ified
Ella Langley’s erstwhile lover may be choosing Texas, but LGBTQIA+ Texans are leaving in droves. There is a slow-moving migration of trans people away from the South – and even from this country. Against this context, it feels like many LGBTQIA+ folks are casting a leery eye on
Black News 
Ella Langley’s erstwhile lover may be choosing Texas, but LGBTQIA+ Texans are leaving in droves. There is a slow-moving migration of trans people away from the South – and even from this country. Against this context, it feels like many LGBTQIA+ folks are casting a leery eye on Pride next month: striking the right balance between celebration and resistance is nothing new for LGBTQIA+ people, but the collective exhaustion, disappointment with “allies,” and miasma of fear is a bit of a damper.
There’s been plenty of music and catch phrases to define the movement as it sashays into the 21st century – unfortunately, they tend to be cis-het people: “Born This Way” (Lady Gaga) is a bop, sure, and the banners proclaiming that “Love is love” (Lin-Manuel Miranda) do not acknowledge the material conditions that are not guaranteed to LGBTQIA+ people: healthcare, employment opportunities, housing equality, reproductive freedom, county clerks who won’t spit on us when we try to get our marriage licenses signed. We need bold declarations that for us – by us.
As we lumber towards America’s 250th anniversary, queer country artists are doing their part to illustrate how America’s promise can uplift us – and where the words of the Founders have fallen far short of reality.
Adam Mac strikes a delicious balance of pop country jubilation with sassy finger-wagging on “Hate To See Me Coming.” It’s the kind of song that might be obnoxious and swaggering in the hands of a trucker-hatted bro: a fuck-the-haters bravado that rests on the knife’s edge of Mac’s easy winking charm. The big hooks here give Mac the platform to fling stilettos (heels or knives – your choice of metaphor) at homophobes. Like any good country song, Mac invites us to make his struggle ours – so we can be defiant together.
