Happy Pride Month to all!
As my favourite month to celebrate my community, identity, culture and history has approached, I’ve been actively trying to make an effort to research queer icons who have made history and significantly impacted our lives as queer people, visit museum exhibitions that highlight queer realities and read up on the culture in general. I’ve dedicated several segments throughout my own work to the LGBTQ+ communities, artists and musicians – there is no shortage of queer acknowledgement in my writing, however, for this special month, I’ve decided to collect some of my favourite musicians and explore the positive change, impact and influence they try to make in this world for queer communities.
In celebration of those who speak out on our part, who fight for our right to love, who fight for our rights to success and for presence in media, who have empathised with us, in celebration of those part of the community who love unconditionally, who create a safety network for the rest of us – here’s some icons who fight for change for queer communities. I would like to personally include some allies in this list too, but the vast majority of this will revolve around some of my favourite queer artists.
Madonna
Madonna herself is not queer, but I remember a while back asking myself what made her so important for queer communities, only to find out that she made a huge contribution in the 70s and 80s during AIDS and HIV epidemics, but it all really started when she was still a young girl saying, “Why have I always fought for change? That’s a hard question to answer. It’s like trying to explain the importance of reading or the need to love. Growing up, I always felt like an outsider, like I didn’t fit in.”
She has always fought for comfort and equal self-expression for everyone, and her song and video Vogue became very important to this movement. It was creative, artistic and, most importantly, it made reference to Voguing in cross-dressing, drag shows and ballroom culture and Paris is Burning is a great example and source of learning about drag and ballroom. Watching Madonna’s music video to Vogue (the clue is also in the song title), we can see just how many references Madonna makes to cultures derivative from LGBTQ+ communities.
Some would argue that her support for the LGBT community is probably unmatched to this day. When the AIDS and HIV epidemic took over the U.S, Madonna lost many friends, colleagues and fellow artists. The media circulated rumours of a ‘gay cancer’, spreading fear, panic, disgust and hatred due to the lack of treatment or scientific knowledge.
Madonna, however, got ahead of many people and organizations. When she released her album ‘Like a Prayer’, she added leaflets to each copy of vinyl informing about HIV and AIDS, and how to protect yourself from them. In this way, anyone who bought the vinyl could inform themselves and possibly help others suffering from the disease or spread the word of protection.
For many years she actively raised money for charities such as the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and today she supports many other causes through her own charity, Raising Malawi.
Lady Gaga
Another icon in the queer community, Lady Gaga has had her sexual orientation and gender questioned by many media outlets, journalists and interviewers. One of her most recognised and appreciated moments took place during the 2011 CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, where she had been asked about having a ‘male appendage’, to which she responded “Maybe I do? Would that be so terrible?”. Her refusal to entertain such questions or remarks, she explained, have been done to erase the shame that trans people feel and have had placed around their identity by society.
Her song Born This Way is dedicated to members of the queer community, encouraging them to literally be as they were born, to not feel shame surrounding their identity and wear it proudly; she claimed the song was her ‘freedom song’, and it has become an anthem of liberty and power for so many around the world.
During her Grammys speech she vocalised the need to support trans people after the aggressive erasure of trans identities by the Trump administration, calling for the visibility of trans and queer lives, similarly to her call for legal same-sex marriage during the Obama administration in 2009. She expressed: “Trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love” (Daniel Reynolds, Lady Gaga at Grammys: ‘Trans people are not invisible’, Out, 2025)
According to Pride.com, Gaga’s albums and song Abracadabra shows her immense knowledge surrounding the “intersections of art and queer culture”. It’s not surprising then, that she also understands the intersection between her own music, presence and significance in the media and allyship for many communities. She expressed her need to speak out: “When you have a platform, it’s important to speak out about things that are important to the world that affect people’s lives” (Tracy E. Gilchrist, Lady Gaga says it’s ‘violence’ to silence queer people, Pride, 2025)
Gaga has spoken out and stood as an ally for queer communities throughout her entire career; she has drawn inspiration and credited minority communities for her artistic visions and continuously supports people of all shapes, colours and identities. Gaga’s music is so colourful and expressive, she’s unabashedly herself, audacious, creative and unique in what she does, and her artistry had quickly become a safe space for queer people, where they could equally express themselves unabashedly.
NLE Choppa
Having himself set the record that he is indeed straight, NLE Choppa remains a faithful ally for LGBTQ+ communities. For me personally what’s more unique about this is that he is a cis, straight male rapper who openly supports queer communities, which does not happen often from such figures and even less so in spheres of rap and hip hop.
NLE explains his own desire to express love and support, also indeed claiming that no rapper does what he’s doing: “I [came] into August with a fearless approach, […] First quarter of the year, I tried to rest in peace my rage and my anger. Midway there in the summer, I became more confident. More loving, had more fun. Showed love to the gay community, no rapper’s doing that.” (Mira Lazine, NLE Choppa speaks out against the backlash to his LGBTQ+ allyship, INTO, 2025)
During NLE’s interview with Zach Sang, Zach thanks him for the support for gay communities, “as a gay man, thank you”, he says, after which NLE expressed that he wants to perform at pride events to show his allyship, love and support.
King Princess
I felt that King Princess should be listed in this post because I very much love her and her artistry. Her music is honestly so unique in so many ways, her creative visions never fail to amaze me and the Cheap Queen album is possibly her best work to date.
One of my favourite songs, Homegirl, kind of works in a parallel to Talia and both have some of the most amazing lyrics I’ve heard from Mikaela, in the ways she talks about boy vs girl love, taking risks and falling in love and the heartbreak of staying “friends at the party”. Talia is different in the sense of having someone’s ghost lingering over you, but both are painful in acknowledging that someone you want is not for you.
Ohio, on the other hand, very much deviates from the album’s usual instrumentality, with KP surprising us with not only very rock-inspired instrumentals, but voice alike. It is an impressive demonstration of her talent and variety of vocal abilities.
Trust Nobody is another one of my favourites, it’s equally heartbreaking in the sense of knowing you’re in love, knowing you want someone all to yourself. There’s heartbreak in that because there’s a risk of not being able to do anything about it, of being treated “like a ticket”. Feelings can be a difficult process – KP not only understands this but is a master of painting the process of falling, being and falling out of love so genuinely and authentically. I admire her writing and production so much, it’s hard not to fall into essay-writing. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what her upcoming album, Girl Violence, has to offer in September.
KP has provided a huge platform for sapphics around the world with music for us to relate to and has spoken out countlessly about her support for several other minority communities alongside her own.
“I think the problem right now is people are failing to see beyond themselves […] I don’t know why people feel they need to either be something or they can’t possibly relate to it. I will never understand what it’s like to be Black, but I can still support the Black Lives Matter movement and strive to empathize.” (Net-a-Porter, King Princess Talk Life In Lockdown & Why She’s A Passionate Advocate For Inclusivity & Equality, 2020)
Mikaela and her (now) ex-partner Quinn Wilson have engaged in Black Lives Matter protests and spoken out in support of black trans communities, educating people all throughout Pride Month in 2020, as well as sharing organisations and petitions to support numerous causes. In an interview with British Vogue in 2020, she said “It’s also Pride Month, and if pride is matching up with a massive global Black Lives Matter movement then we need to understand the interconnectivity between pride and black lives. I encourage those who can’t go out and protest to learn. It’s time to research.”
Ryan Cahill, How Quinn Wilson & King Princess Are Fighting For LGBTQIA+ Equality, British Vogue, 2020
King Princess is not only someone you can rely on to understand the various experiences when in love or out of love but most importantly someone you can rely on to use their platform for good representation and activism. A journalist from the Odyssey once very aptly once expressed that: “Everyone needs a hero in their lives. King Princess is saving the LGBTQ community by transposing her thoughts and feelings into songs and sharing them with anyone who is willing to listen.” (Abbie Carnes, King Princess, This Is How You Have Influenced the LGBTQ Community, The Odyssey Online, 2018)
Cat Burns
I initially found Cat Burns through her song GIRLS!. She is a British singer and songwriter, and although her music is not entirely my kind of genre, her lyrics are so honest and vulnerable in all matters of life. As many other journalists have remarked, her bio expresses to be ‘helping you get through shit, one song at a time’. And she does it with a smooth, melodic voice, and painfully honest lyricism. Alone is one of my favourite songs, where her voice really lulls you away with powerful instrumentals and an occasional mellow guitar.
live more & love more is a heartwarming song about caring for the people you love, getting past difficult moments and learning that we’re all okay in the end. Cat writes gentle reminders to take life slowly and be open with our love and our struggles equally.
Her song GIRLS! literally talks all about… girls. Cat Burns explained in a BBC News interview, and many others, that growing up, she felt there wasn’t much music representative of queer girls, speaking for queer girls. So, taking matters into her own hands, she released the single and created for others what she had missed for so long: “I feel like I never had a song like that for me […] Especially for all the queer girls […] It’s nice to know that people like you exist and exist freely.” (Riyah Collins, Cat Burns: ‘I never had music for queer girls’, BBC News, 2025)
She creates spaces for queer women all around the world to express themselves and find a safety network around other artists. With her coming out, she potentially became the queer model so many people lack in their lives, standing up for generations of young, queer and black women, giving them opportunities to find art and media that these girls will find pieces of themselves in.
“The more representation and more space for different types of queer artists we have, the more vivid a picture of what the community is actually like and who exists within that community we will get.”, she explains (Yasmin Vince, Cat Burns: “It’s nice to know that people like you exist and exist freely”, Diva Magazine, 2025).
Whilst speaking up for sapphic visibility, Cat has also been very open about being neurodivergent. She opened up about her ADHD and ASD diagnosis, which helped her understand her own life as well as pushed her to speak out for more research for women and black women in neurodivergence: “It [research] needs to be across the board, but especially with women and black women […] For a black girl, it could be taking out her braids and putting them back in or something else to do with her culture that’s overlooked.” (Megan Lawton, Cat Burns on autism, ADHD and a lack of research, BBC News, 2023)
Cat Burns has created a platform to speak up about queerness, mental struggles, neurodivergence and black experience. She has also come forward into a public space which provides so many others with an idol to resonate with and understand that they have someone else just like them, struggling with the same things they do.
Doda
And finally, we’ve come to the final icon on this list. I will not be executing a primarily anglophone audience to have any knowledge of who she is, but I felt it important to include her to pay some homage to my own Polish background and queer icons in my home country who spread love and support.
Doda is a Polish singer and songwriter, who rose to fame in the 2000s, especially after releasing her single Nie Daj Sie, which remains arguably her most recognisable song to this day. She was the Polish Ke$ha, Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne and Paris Hilton packaged into a single person. She was the 2000s personified. She was and still remains audacious, brave, loud, outspoken and a boss at everything she does. She was very influential in the media, and still remains a solid voice of rationale, showing incredible emotional intelligence in every interview she conducts.
For the longest time, however, I did not know she’s even queer. I had only discovered that she was in a long-term relationship and engaged to a woman many years ago while doing research for this post, because I wanted to see whether any of the singers I admire from Poland happen to be queer. Doda was one of very few.
She has been very open about her bisexuality, speaking with fondness about her ex-fiancée. She has attended many events in support of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as stood up in defense of the community against her ex-husband’s bigotry and intolerance of queer people and her gay friends. Some speculate that this may have been one of the reasons they eventually separated.
“We will support my friends, because it’s important for me that my future partner is tolerant and will find a common language with those who are close to me […] For example, my last partner pretended to be tolerant, and after the wedding he told me that my gay friends are not allowed in my house. Why? So what did I do? I changed my ******* house” (Onet Plejada, Doda wytyka nietolerancje byłemu mężowi. Jej partner musi wspierać LGBT, 2022).
Her song Nie Daj Sie probably says a lot in and of itself, because it encourages its listeners to not give into people’s hate, to be yourself and wear your identity with pride and keep pushing forward towards your own success whilst remaining the most authentic you can be, regardless of people’s judgement.
To conclude this, I wanted to mention that this does not include so many other people I would love to talk about; this is a list inspired by people I personally follow, love and admire in many ways and capacities, but it is not an exhaustive list. The support that queer communities have is truly amazing and growing day by day. And in a world that’s shifting towards traditional values and is pushing for traditional binaries, the need for such support also grows day by day, and these are some people to whom we are grateful for the representation and support.
Article By Rozalia Lewandowska
Sources
Savad Abadsidis, Remembering Madonna’s ‘Facts about AIDS’, HIVPlusMag, 2018
Remembering Madonna’s ‘Facts About AIDS’
Muri Acunçao, 12 Times Lady Gaga Showed Love for the LGBTQ Community, Billboard, 2018
12 Times Lady Gaga Showed Love for the LGBTQ Community | Billboard
Daniel Reynolds, Lady Gaga at Grammys: ‘Trans people are not invisible’, Out, 2025
Lady Gaga at Grammys: ‘Trans people are not invisible’
Tracy E. Gilchrist, Lady Gaga says it’s ‘violence’ to silence queer people, Pride, 2025
Lady Gaga says it’s ‘violence’ to silence queer people
Zach Sang Show Clips, NLE Choppa on the LGBTQ+ Community, YouTube, 2024
NLE Choppa on the LGBTQ+ Community
Mira Lazine, NLE Choppa speaks out against the backlash to his LGBTQ+ allyship, INTO, 2025NLE Choppa speaks out against the backlash to his LGBTQ+ allyship – INTONet-a-Porter, King Princess Talk Life In Lockdown & Why She’s A Passionate Advocate For Inclusivity & Equality, 2020
Ryan Cahill, How Quinn Wilson & King Princess Are Fighting For LGBTQIA+ Equality, British Vogue, 2020How Quinn Wilson & King Princess Are Fighting For LGBTQIA+ Equality | British Vogue
Abbie Carnes, King Princess, This Is How You Have Influenced the LGBTQ Community, The Odyssey Online, 2018King Princess, This Is How You Have Influenced The LGBTQ Community | The Odyssey Online
Charlotte Manning, King Princess interview: ‘LGBTQ fan culture is driving the music industry – it’s poetic justice’, Attitude, 2023
King Princess: ‘LGBTQ+ fan culture is driving the industry’ – Attitude
Riyah Collins, Cat Burns: ‘I never had music for queer girls’, BBC News, 2025
Cat Burns: ‘I never had music for queer girls’ – BBC News
Yasmin Vince, Cat Burns: “It’s nice to know that people like you exist and exist freely”, Diva Magazine, 2025Cat Burns: “It’s nice to know that people like you exist and exist freely” –
Megan Lawton, Cat Burns on autism, ADHD and a lack of research, BBC News, 2023Cat Burns on autism, ADHD and a lack of research – BBC News
Sophie Williams, Cat Burns: uplifting songwriter wants to “help Black queer artists” tell their story, NME, 2022
Cat Burns: uplifting songwriter wants to “help Black queer artists” tell their story
L’Oréal Blackett, Cat Burns on Black Queer Representation in Music, Refinery29, 2022
Cat Burns On Black Queer Representation In Music
Charlotte Krol, Cat Burns’ vulnerable and honest songwriting is storming the UK Charts, Rolling Stone UK, 2022
Cat Burns’ vulnerable and honest songwriting is storming the UK charts – Rolling Stone UK
Redakcja WLocie, Szok! Doda wyznała prawdę o swojej orientacji, 2019
Szok! Doda wyznała prawdę o swojej orientacji | wLocie.pl
Onet Plejada, Doda wytyka nietolerancje byłemu mężowi. Jej partner musi wspierać LGBT, 2022
Doda wytyka nietolerancję byłemu mężowi. Jej partner musi wspierać LGBT – Plejada.pl
Piotr Grabarczyk, Doda o gejach. Doda w Pride. Wywiad z Doda w Pride, Grabari, 2015
