"A Black Eye for the South"

Country singer Chely Wright, who is proudly gay, married, Southern, and Christian, tells it like it is regarding the anti-gay politics in North Carolina:

Wedding Belles

Country singer Chely Wright, who came out on the Today show last year, married her fiancee, Lauren Blitzer, in Connecticut yesterday.  All good wishes to the happy couple, who make their home in New York City.

The Miami Herald reports:

Wright has said being openly gay would likely hurt her career. She told the Los Angeles Times homosexuality is still taboo in the country music industry.

“They would rather you were a drug addict than be gay,” she told the newspaper. “They will forgive you if you beat your wife, lose your kids to the state, get six divorces, make a sex tape, get labeled as a tramp — any and all of it is better than being gay."

Chely Wright: Wish Me Away

Chely Wright at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, 2010

When you're in hiding, you have nowhere to turn because nobody knows your secret, and when you're in pain, you can't reach out to anybody. . . .

I have a network now, whereas before I didn't have anybody. And that is the beautiful benefit of living in the light.

Country star Chely Wright came out - on the Today Show - last year, the first major country artist to do so.  Now a documentary about her journey out of the closet is winning awards at LGBT film festivals across the country, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Nashville.

Boys, I can't tell you how fucking brave this gal is; you guys living the easy life up there in the blue state wonderland have no idea what kind of balls it took for her to come out to everybody and his brother down here in Bibleland. As a friend of Chely's says in the film:  "There's nobody quite as mean as people being mean for Jesus."  I tell you what.

Chely now lives in New York City and is getting married on August 20 to LGBT activist Lauren Blitzer. The documentary will be released this fall. Some clips:





Chely tells the story of an interview on a country radio station:




You can order an autographed copy of Chely's autobiography, Like Me, at her official website.

Sunday Drive: Chely Wright

The first major country-music star to come out.

But only after years of hiding, lying, and inner torment caused in large part by her religious upbringing, which led her in 2006 to put a gun in her mouth:  "layers and layers of betrayal of myself, of lying to myself."  Which I know a lot of my Truckbuddies, like me, can relate to.

Listen to her moving story, and send this on to those good country people you know and love who haven't quite gotten the point about the gay thing yet.  Maybe this will help.







Chely's official website here.

To order an autographed copy of Like Me, her autobiography released last week, click here.