LGBTQ+ Band Members For Pride Month

10. Kele Okereke - Bloc Party

Bloc Party's frontman Kele Okereke has always stood out in the indie music scene. Many publications focused solely on the fact that he is a gay black man, which for an indie band of the early 2000's was pretty much unheard of.

Speaking on his experience in the indie music world Okereke found that fans didn't care about the colour of his skin or his sexuality but rock journalists and more specifically white male rock journalists did. He once wrote that interview questions he would be asked in the early 2000's always mentioned his race, carrying the subtext that he didn't belong in the indie music world as a black man. Despite this, Bloc Party went on to make hit records and sell out tours proving that race and sexuality aren't something for people to overcome but to celebrate.

Okereke has spoken about his sexuality and the LGBTQ+ community a lot over the years, implying that whilst times have progressed there is still more work to be done.

He has spoken about wanting more visibility, more representation, more LGBTQ+ artists pushing the community forwards and more LGBTQ+ stories where they are the heroes not the joke or tragedy on the side:

"There’s still a long way for gay artists to go in terms of being fully realised and being able to express themselves in the way that heterosexual artists do."