LGBTQ+ Band Members For Pride Month

First of all happy Pride to everyone reading this, with Pride Month sadly coming to a close it's as good a time as any to look at the band members throughout the years that have showed their legions of fans it's okay to be whoever they are.

Something to remember is that sexuality is a deeply personal part of someones life and just because that someone is a celebrity that doesn't give anyone the right to demand to know how they identify, tell them what they are or out them. In saying that this list is compromised of people who have openly spoken about and confirmed their sexuality in their own words.

It can be hard for anyone to come out, let alone people who have had to do it in the public eye, but thanks to these artists and so many others like them who are proud of who they are it gives fans the courage to live their lives freely and for that they deserve some thanks.

If you've come to this list to find someone to relate to or are struggling with your own sexual identity remember it's okay to be whoever you are and to love whoever you love and that (as this list will hopefully show you) you are never alone.

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."