Melissa Etheridge blasts a journalist who "changed every pronoun I used" in a 1992 interview.
Key Points
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When the magazine was published, the singer was "horrified" to see her "girlfriend" had become a "boyfriend."
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Etheridge ultimately decided to come out soon after in January 1993.
Just asMelissa Etheridgewas ready to come out, a journalist nearly pushed her further into the closet.
Months before the rockerannounced, “I’m very proud to have been a lesbian all my life,” at the Triangle Ball in January 1993, she was on the cover ofMusic Expressmagazine.
Although she spoke openly in the interview, when the issue was published she was shocked to see “he changed every pronoun that I used,” Etheridge recalled toGood CharlotteguitaristBenji Maddenon theArtist Friendlypodcast. “He changed it to my ‘boyfriend,’ and it horrified me.”
At the time, “the gay community was really strong, but it was underground,” she explained. “And I’m like, ‘Oh my god, they’re going to think that I did this.’”
The betrayal inspired Etheridge to make a bold statement about her sexuality.
Her original strategy was to come out on theArsenio Hall Showto coincide with the September 1993 release of her fourth album,Yes I Am. But after working on the Bill Clinton–Al Gore campaign, when she was around “powerful gay leaders,” she expedited the plan to Jan. 20 at the Triangle Ball, the gay-themed celebration ofPresident Clinton’s inauguration.
Standing onstage beside singerk.d. lang, who publicly came out in 1992, Etheridge acknowledged her “sister” was her inspiration.
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“And I’m very proud to say right here, I’m very proud to have been a lesbian all my life,” she said.
Looking back at the moment three decades later, “I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to be truthful to myself and speak about it,” Etheridge told Madden. “It comes back to me constantly.”
Early in her career, when her self-titled debut album came out in 1988, the singer’s sexuality was “an unspoken thing” with fans. At her concerts, “my first two rows would be women losing their minds,” she recalled. “And I’m like, ‘I don’t know…’”
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By the time of her 1992 album,Never Enough, alternative music was sweeping the nation. The grunge scene’s uniform, flannel, was already a staple in Etheridge’s wardrobe, and the trend also helped ease her out of the proverbial closet.
“I’ve been wearing flannel for a long time,” she told Madden, “and I hear ‘alternative,’ and I’m like, ‘This is the time.’”
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