Even at the festivals created to celebrate the queer experience, LGBTQ artists are not being given the spotlight that they deserve. That needs to change.
Every June, millions of LGBTQ people across the United States celebrate love, inclusivity and their impermeable identities as a part of Pride Month. In 2019, Pride Month will be bigger than ever: with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the event that began the now-annual Pride Month traditions, queer people everywhere will be searching for ways to celebrate the progress we have made since then.
Along with the almost always present Pride parades, it has become a custom for cities of all sizes to host weekend-long festivals, where musical acts from all genres come to celebrate LGBTQ love with crowds of thousands. And yet, heterosexual one-hit wonders far outpace rising queer artists when it comes to booking these events. That fact should be alarming.
