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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Gay / Not Gay

posted by on January 23 at 11:03 AM

Somebody call King Missle. This morning, Idolator reports on a zany Christian website—called Love God’s Way [sic]—that’s attempting to list every gay band they can uncover, because, as they say, “One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music.”

Here’s their “Gay” list so far:

The Spores
Scissor Sisters
Rufus Wainwright
Merzbau
Ravi Shankar
Wilco
Bjork
Tech N9ne
Ghostface Killah
Bobby Conn
Morton Subotnik
Cole Porter
The String Cheese Incident
Eagles of Death Metal
Polyphonic Spree
The Faint
Interpol
Tegan and Sara
Erasure
Le Tigre
The Gossip
The Doors
Phish
Queen
The Strokes
Sufjan Stevens
Morrissey
The Pet Shop Boys
Metallica
Judas Priest
The Village People
The Secret Handshake
The Rolling Stones
David Bowie
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Man or Astroman
Richard Cheese
Jay-Z
Depeche Mode
Kansas
Ani DiFranco
Fischerspooner
John Mayer
The Indigo Girls
Velvet Underground

(Yes, that is a sweet playlist. If the evangelists behind Love God’s Way [sic] ever lose their tax-free status, they could always make money selling pre-programmed iPods.)

Here’s their list of some safely “Not Gay” bands for your kids instead:

UnderOath
Cyndi Lauper
Falling Up
Flyleaf
THE TURNING
Disciple
P.O.D
By The Tree
Scott Reed
Michael W. Smith
Jars of Clay
DC Talk
Danielson

But what I wonder is, where’s the website listing all the insidious, secretly Christian indie/punk bands? After all, one of the most dangerous ways Christianity invades family life is through indie rock. Sufjan Stevens can be the first artist to make both the “Gay” list and the “Christian” list. Danielson will be more confused than ever!

RSS icon Comments

1

Belle and Sebastian would qualify as "gay" and "Christian" too. Hey Megan, look! I mentioned Belle and Sebastian again!

Posted by christopher frizzelle | January 23, 2007 11:22 AM
2

Waitasecond -- "Queen" is secretly GAY? Who knew?

Posted by flamingbanjo | January 23, 2007 11:30 AM
3

Ah, poor Morton Subotnick, maker of the masterpiece "Touch." He must be the most misspelled composer of our time, though Scelsi gets munged too.

And I suspect "Merzbau" should denote noise artist Merzbow (Masami Akita), not Schwitters' work.

Posted by Christopher DeLaurenti | January 23, 2007 11:31 AM
4

Kansas is gay? Dust in the wind?

Posted by trent moorman | January 23, 2007 11:36 AM
5

Did Cyndi Lauper go Christian on us?

Posted by Misty Brown | January 23, 2007 12:05 PM
6

i think there should be a catagory for "liked by the gays, but not 'gay'".

bjork is married with 2 children. i think we can take her off the "gay" list

but yes, string cheese incident is "gay", but not in the good way.

Posted by terry miller | January 23, 2007 12:13 PM
7

First of all, should little Christian children be listening to "She Bop"? Last I checked, "She Bop" was all about masturbation.

"They say I better get a chaperone/Because I can't stop messin' with the danger zone."

Also, Belle & Sebastian should be on the list just because NO ONE should listen to them.

Mayonnaise, however, is appropriate for both gays and Christians.

Posted by Megan Seling | January 23, 2007 12:24 PM
8

How could they neglect to include Wham!? Or did the exclamation point and the lyric "You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day" render that a foregone conclusion for Jesus freaks?

Posted by Bettina | January 23, 2007 1:37 PM
9

but they left off PANSY DIVISION and PROPAGHANDI...but maybe punk rock still isn't as popular as we think.

and isn't Morrissey "a-sexual"...maybe that is why he is listed as "questionable".

Posted by L.Wilson | January 23, 2007 2:57 PM
10

You all realize this is a joke, right? If listening to Subotnik [sic] and Ravi Shankar (that's comedy gold right there!) will make you gay, I'd be going to The Cuff every weekend.

Posted by segal | January 23, 2007 3:17 PM
11

bjork isn't the only 'not gay' artist on
that list.. not that it really matters..

Posted by Jedd! | January 23, 2007 3:41 PM
12

You guys! Keep up the discussion here, but don't forget to submit (hilarious) corrections to the official list. From the Love God's Way website:

In Our effort to keep this list up to date we'd appreciate your help. If you know of a band that is Gay or propogating a Gay message please email us so we can update. Donnie is handling this his email is: donniedavies@gmail.com

The response is overwhelming. You guys know of a lot more Gay Bands than I do. I can't keep up. Hopefully soon we'll have it so you can add them by yourself.

Posted by Eric Grandy | January 23, 2007 4:16 PM
13

This is certainly amusing, but let's keep things in perspective. As zany as those fundies get, this site appears to be phony. It launched along with a website for the Christian-indie-rock band "Evening Service" (double entendre duly noted), a couple of corresponding myspace pages, and, best of all, a video from the band, fronted by the pink polo-wearking, alleged ex-gay youth minister.

www.thestranger.com/blog/2007/01/god_hates_a_fag

Posted by heavyd | January 23, 2007 4:37 PM
14

How does that make it phony? The fact that it comes from an "ex-gay" christian rock band certainly makes it more ridiculous but not necessarily less sincere.

Posted by Eric Grandy | January 23, 2007 5:02 PM
15

Oscar Wilde (reformed homosexual)

Dude, come on. This should not be taken seriously.

Posted by segal | January 23, 2007 7:45 PM
16

Reformed Oscar Wilde indeed (he died gayer than Ted Haggard). And beyond that, check out the link to Dan Savage's post and the long list of comments detailing the hoax. Don't get me wrong -- it's funny and fairly clever. But it's a fake.

If you'd rather not dig through those comments, here's the short list: there's a rosary on the "evangelical" website, there's no proper contact info for this de-gaying ministry, the ministry logo riffs on an HIV charity's logo, and, as mentioned above, the band is called "Evening Service" (!). "To enter heaven, there's no back door." Take that, Oscar Wilde.

Posted by heavyd | January 24, 2007 4:52 AM
17

i am so glad bobby conn made the gay list

Posted by josh | January 24, 2007 10:52 AM

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