Ain't no gay-bashin' bigot smiles like Dolly.
Dolly Parton has long been an icon to the gay community. Her blazing talent aside, we are drawn in by her high camp and charmed by her deep heart. She is able to laugh at herself while being unapologetically exactly who she is. We just get that and love her for it. She has long acknowledged her gay fan base and shown us many signs of support over the years. Never was that support more pronounced than during an interview she gave to PrideSource last spring:
It's more than just you being non-judgmental. You said growing up you felt different, something many gay people can empathize with. Do you sense that relationship?"God made me the way that I am and it's my business to be true to that."
Yes, I do. I've always felt that. I've always felt that's one of the things that's drawn my gay fans to me. They do know that I do feel different, and all of my life I will be different. I always have been. But I enjoy and appreciate and respect that difference in myself just like I do in other people. God made me the way that I am and it's my business to be true to that.You were one of the first major country artists to advocate for gay rights. Why did you decide to take that step and stand up for LGBT equality?Why wouldn't I stand up for everybody, for all people? In the country field, we're brought up in spiritual homes, we're taught to "judge not lest you be judged," and it's always been a mystery to me how people jump all over things just to criticize, condemn and judge other people when that is so un-Christian - and they claim to be good Christians! We're supposed to love one another. We're supposed to accept and love one another. Whether we do or not, that's a different story. But that's what we're supposed to do.
Friends, that is wisdom.
Dolly has always unabashedly celebrated her Christian faith and I deeply admire what it has taught her. Towards the end of October, she upped the anti on her anti-judgment message for her fellow Christians in an interview with Billboard. This time, she firmly grasped the fundamentalist finger of judgment and turned it directly back toward them, using their own weapon of choice, the Bible.
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