Kelly Clarkson: I used to see ‘kids get their asses kicked for being gay’
the Featured Presentation: Music’s Leading Ladies Speak Out powered by Nielsen Music during Music Biz 2017 at Renaissance Nashville Hotel on May 16, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Kelly Clarkson has spoken out about what led her to support the LGBT community saying she used to see kids “get their asses kicked” for being gay.
Speaking to GT magazine, Clarkson opened up about her support from the LGBT community and why she has been a longtime supporter of the community.
She said: “I grew up in the South, and when I was a kid, kids would get their asses kicked [for being gay]. It was insane. Like, a couple of my guy friends growing up were gay and I didn’t know because they didn’t even confide in me. When I was asked to write that Gay Pride Month Love Letter, I was like, ‘I think I’m going to say I’ll be thankful for the day when people like me don’t have to be thanked for being an ally.’ Because, don’t you think it’s a weird thing for me to be thanked for? Just for being decent, for being a normal, reasonable human being?
“When I look back at those guys I grew up with, I just think, ‘Wow, how incredibly sad that they couldn’t be themselves, that they had to pretend to have girlfriends.’
“I just look forward to the day when we don’t have to write love letters to any minority groups in society. Where it’s equal everywhere. It’s 2017, we should be evolved and progressive enough to be past this. But we’re not! Because half of my country thinks differently to the way I do!”
Earlier this year, Clarkson helped one of her fans propose to his boyfriend.
Fan Alex Malerba decided that his life would suck without partner Justin Blake, there was only one way to pop the question.
The South Carolina pair travelled to Las Vegas to see their hero perform at a conference, but when they met the Stronger singer backstage, Alex had already formed a secret plan.
Clarkson earlier this year spoke out again about her less than high opinion of Dr Luke.
In an interview with Z100’s Mo Bounce, Clarkson alleged her record label RCA had forced her to work with the producer Lukasz ‘Dr Luke’ Gottwald.
Gottwald is credited on Clarkson’s 2009 song My Life Would Suck Without You, as a co-writer and co-producer.
Clarkson claimed she turned down a writing credit on the song, and therefore ‘hundreds of thousands…or millions’ of dollars, because she did not want her name to appear next to his.
“Basically, they [RCA] were gonna sit on my record unless I did what they wanted, I was so frustrated because I literally said, ‘Anyone in the world but this one person. I will work with anyone you want to put in my path.”
Dr Luke with singer Miley Cyrus at the 56th Grammy Awards. (Getty)
Clarkson had previously worked with Gottwald on her 2004 songs Since U Been Gone and Behind Those Hazel Eyes.
“I was like, ‘I don’t want my name near his. I want to pretend this didn’t happen in my life and I want to forget it,’”
Clarkson said she had made changes to My Life Would Suck Without You which would have entitled her to a writing credit, but she declined.
The track was the lead single from Clarkson’s album All I Ever Wanted.
Explaining her decision, she said “I was making a point to the people working with me, going, ‘This is how much I didn’t want to do this.’ I don’t care about the money. I don’t care about, ‘Oh, you’re going to be the most famous person if you do this,’…that’s not what holds weight in my life.”
My Life Would Suck Without You made number one on its second in the Billboard Hot 100 charts, jumping from its first week position of 97 – one of the largest ever recorded.
This is not the first time Clarkson has spoken out about her antagonism to Dr Luke.
Speaking to Kiss1065 in 2016, she said that “He’s not a good person, to me. We’ve clashed.”.
She added “When so many artists don’t like you, that says something.”
In the same year, Clarkson also shared this cryptic tweet about Gottwald.
Trying 2 not say anything since I can't say anything nice about a person… so this is me not talking about Dr. Luke https://t.co/lLhtUHbmgG
— Kelly Clarkson (@kellyclarkson) February 19, 2016
On the subject of Gottwald’s legal battles with Kesha, whose fans often call on Clarkson to condemn Gottwald, she declined to pass judgement on the specific situation, telling KISS1065 “I’ll be honest about the guy but I don’t know the situation”.
Watch Kesha perform a feminist anthem in a drag bar in her new video
