Delight Month feels simply as revolutionary and necessary as ever. It’s presently taking place towards a backdrop of an unprecedented wave of anti-trans laws. The American Civil Liberties Union is presently monitoring 491 anti-LGBTQ+ payments, which goal trans individuals or intention to ban or censor drag performances. Lots of the payments search to stop trans youth from receiving gender-affirming medical care, cease colleges from providing trans-inclusive schooling, and block trans individuals from utilizing the toilet that feels most acceptable to them.

It’s affordable to really feel very unhappy and scared by this information, nevertheless it’s additionally a potent reminder of why Delight exists within the first place. We’re nonetheless combating: for dignity, bodily autonomy, and the liberty to exist as our true selves in public.

Music has at all times been part of the continued combat for liberation; our canonical homosexual anthems—with their themes of survival, acceptance, and self-love—have been a significant supply of queer pleasure and connection for many years, and nonetheless are right this moment.

As a queer Dominican boy rising up in Queens within the ’90s, a few of these songs have been lifelines for me, placing into phrases what I couldn’t say aloud on the time. They gave me a voice after I felt unvoiced, underneath the sheen of a diva persona and a booming beat that drowned out my darkest ideas. Lip-synching to Whitney Houston’s “I’m Each Lady”—particularly the hovering bridge—offers me the identical catharsis to today. In spite of everything, “I’ve obtained it!!”

Beneath you’ll discover a playlist of a few of our all-time favourite homosexual anthems; it’s a mixture of classics and up to date bops, all of which can elevate you up, brighten your spirits, and provide help to really feel like your finest, queerest self. Put them on on your subsequent news-induced rage exercise, sizzling lady stroll, or simply whenever you want a bit of one thing to energy your day. Being queer is a present, and like Woman Gaga declares on “Free Lady,” “That is my dance ground I fought for.”