June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate the LGBTQ community and its impact on our culture in the face of adversity throughout history. When it comes to the rock world, it’s safe to say it would be drastically different without the contributions from these LGBTQ rock icons.
Here are just 10 LGBTQ rock icons to celebrate not just during Pride Month, but year-round.
Elton John
Sir Elton is one of music’s greatest icons and a trailblazer for the LGBTQ community. His coming out undoubtedly helped so many other people to take that brave step in embracing their truth. When his documentary Elton John: Never Too Late premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2024, , “It took me so long to tell the truth, and it made me so unhappy, and it was so stupid, the amount of years that I lost by not telling the truth and by fooling myself. And when I stopped fooling myself, my life turned around.”
Freddie Mercury
Mercury’s sexuality and whether he was bisexual or gay is still . But what isn’t up for debate is how his defiant flamboyance impacted rock history. Between his incredible stage presence and his remarkable voice, Mercury is an unabashidly queer icon that will live forever.
Adam Lambert
Lambert, of course, is a former American Idol contestant and has been fronting Queen since 2011. The wheels of the Queen + Adam Lambert partnership began rolling in 2009, when Brian May and Roger Taylor appeared on Idol during the season that featured a then-up-and-coming Lambert. In a 2023 interview with , Lambert shared he came out as gay once he finished high school, but things were a bit tricky navigating the world of Idol. He had a bigger coming out on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2009. Lambert said of his second coming out, “I think I lost some fans at that point, but I always said to myself, ‘Well, those aren’t the fans I want anyway.’ If they think I’m gay and they don’t like that, then go away.”
Lzzy Hale
The dynamic singer for Halestorm is one of rock’s biggest, proudest bi-cons. , Hale wrote, “I’m unapologetically bisexual. Navigating within my own spectrum of this tremendous rainbow that we are all a part of. What I hope to pass onto you, whether you are in a state of pride or still riding the high seas… is that by being your true self, embracing what makes you stand out to others, and owning your weird… these things ultimately become your superpowers. Your true self Is precious, no one can take it from you unless you let them. Wield it like a secret weapon.”
Joan Jett
Similar to Mercury, Jett has never had an official coming out, but she’s never denied her queerness. She told the in 2018, “People aren’t going to tell me what to do. I’m not going to be told how to live and how I can be myself — ‘You must say it.’ It’s like, the more you want me to say it, the more I won’t say it. I’ll just do it. I’m telling my story every day onstage, loud. And if you choose not to hear it because you want me to do it in the way you want me to do it? Fine, I’m not going to make you happy then. If this isn’t for you, bye. But I think I declare every day, all day long.”
Melissa Etheridge
Unlike Jett, Etheridge had a very public coming out; the singer-songwriter . In September of that year, she released the album Yes I Am, which features the hits “Come to My Window” and “I’m the Only One.”
Rob Halford
Like Etheridge, Halford’s coming out was also very public. In 1998, the Judas Priest frontman shared he was gay during an MTV News interview. The Metal God later told in 2021, “It was beautiful. It was very unplanned. It was one of those things where I’m at MTV in New York, I’m talking about a project that I was working on called TWO, with myself and John 5, the amazing guitar player. I was doing the rounds in New York City and ended up at MTV talking about this project. And in the casual course of the conversation, we were talking about the overall music, and the direction, and the feelings. And I said something to the effect of, ‘Well, speaking as a gay man… blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ And then I heard the producer’s clipboard bounce on the floor. It was one of those gay sharp intakes of breath, ‘Oh my God! He’s come out.’”
Billie Joe Armstrong
Armstrong came out as bisexual in a 1995 interview with The Advocate. The Green Day frontman also has no issue being labeled a bi-con and told in 2024, “I like it. I think it’s f—ing cool that someone calls me a bisexual icon. I’ve seen that before. I’m like, ‘F—, yeah!’”
Laura Jane Grace
The Against Me! lead singer came out as a transgender woman in a profile in in May 2012. Since that profile, she’s become one of the most visible and unapologetic activists for the trans community. In an interview with Larry King in 2014, Grace clarified that being trans isn’t about sexuality; it’s about gender, and sexuality and gender are two different things. Sexuality is who you like, and gender is who you are.
Janis Joplin
The late, great Joplin never came out on her own. Instead, her bisexuality was exposed in the 1973 book Going Down With Janis. The book was written by Peggy Caserta, who was in a four-year relationship with the singer. Caserta wrote the book mainly to fund her heroin habit, which she says Joplin introduced to her. Caserta said in a 2018 interview with Vulture (via ), “I never saw Janis as a gay girl. She was straight. She was wild. I’m gay and lived a gay lifestyle event then.”
