Loud and proud: How gay pop stars are a boon to youngsters

Gay performers have long been prominent in the pop industry. However, it’s only in recent years that coming out has become the norm, writes Caomhan Keane.

Dorothy Parker once said that heterosexuality is not normal, it’s just common. Which is why the proliferation of openly gay popstars is likely to be a huge boon to the multitude of gay kids taking their first steps out of the closet. Considering that 12 is the most common age a person discovers they are LGBT, and 16 is the age when they first tell someone, much of what they glean about what it is to be the way they are, comes from popular culture.

“You absolutely do need people who are speaking your language,” says Martin Aston, author of Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache: How Music Came Out. “While Madonna and Lady Gaga, I’m sure, feel that they very much have a kinship with the gay community, it’s vital for young people to have artists who project the authenticity of experience, a sense that maybe they have gone through what you might be going through and got out the other side.”