![you so gay meme you so gay meme](https://64.media.tumblr.com/11b53bec23e8cb6dc79df8bdd6077cc5/eef4f15805c136fa-1e/s640x960/e8ee15168b498f85061db1d2533388413109c042.png)
Madonna's " Vogue", Mariah Carey's " Hero", Ultra Naté's " Free", Janet Jackson's " Together Again", Cher's " Believe", Jessica Simpson's " I Think I'm in Love with You" and " A Public Affair", Kylie Minogue's " Spinning Around" and " Can't Get You Out of My Head", Geri Halliwell's " It's Raining Men", Dannii Minogue's " I Begin to Wonder", Melanie C's " Never Be the Same Again" and " Think About It", Tamar Braxton's " Hot Sugar" and " My Man", Lady Gaga's " Born This Way", and Ariana Grande's " Break Free" are considered as gay anthems for the new generation. UK LGBT rights charity Stonewall named Christina Aguilera's " Beautiful" the most empowering song of the 2000s decade for LGBT people, and Elton John predicted it would replace "I Will Survive" as the pre-eminent gay anthem. No apologies: The theme revolves around defiantly living one's life despite what others may want.Love conquers all: Tales of not giving up on love despite seemingly insurmountable odds.Torch song for the world weary: A narrative about being used, abused, and surviving to tell the tale of lament.For example, " Somewhere (There's a Place for Us)" from West Side Story. Search for acceptance: Songs about a welcoming promised land where the dream of acceptance and belonging and hope lives.Celebrating unashamed sexuality: The theme is of transcending cultural shame to celebrate one's sexual nature." The Greatest Love of All" as sung by Whitney Houston. Hard-won self-esteem: The theme involves fighting through oppression, darkness, or fear to gain freedom, beauty, or self-esteem.Throw your cares away: A carefree narrative about putting your troubles aside and partying.You are not alone: Songs about coming together as a community or reassurance to the lonely that there are others like them out there.Overcoming hardship in love: Usually a narrative of a wronged lover who comes back stronger than before.Big-voiced divas: Rather than particular to the songs, this area of gay anthems is more akin to a cult of personality of a large gay male following for some particular diva-style pop music vocalists who are almost always black, female gay icons.In the 2002 book Queer, the following ten main themes were listed that are common among many, if not all gay anthems: Is it being offered as a statement of surprise? Or as a clunky and misguided compliment? At the very least, it would suggest the person saying it thinks gay people look a certain way.Melanie Brown was shown kissing another woman in her " For Once in My Life" video, making this song a hymn of the gay community.Īlthough every song is individual, the criteria for what makes a gay anthem has shown a trend among the years. Surprise, compliment or criticism?īut what of that statement? ‘You don’t look gay.’ How are we supposed to react to that? Being your authentic self is so much more important than trying to fit in with the crowd. That said, I like to think I’m thankfully long past any conscious efforts to be ‘straight-acting’ and just want to simply be ‘David-acting’. For most of us, we’re still works in progress. If you never ever experience feelings of internalized homophobia, good for you. I’ve written about feeling internalized homophobia before, so won’t go on at length about it here. Well, what sort of pride is that? Certainly not gay pride, I’m ashamed to say. Hooray for me… still passing as straight. The second reaction, if I’m being totally honest, is a small flush of pride.
![you so gay meme you so gay meme](https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/5977695_700b.jpg)
Perhaps because being gay is so much a part of my own identity and life (I work for an LGBTI news website, after all), I think I must project gay-ness to the world. I’m not sure why but I tend to assume people can discern my sexuality just by looking at me or reading my body language. My initial reaction is, firstly, slight surprise. I have been told ‘you don’t look gay’ a handful of times over the years. It’s followed by a photo of a person dressed in a rainbow flag. There’s a funny meme doing the rounds of social media.