With Dolly Parton’s death this week, the world lost an icon. The queer community, though, lost one of its most steadfast advocates.
For the LGBTQ+ community, losing Parton goes beyond simply mourning a beloved cultural staple. This is a woman whose outspoken advocacy made us feel seen and valued within the notoriously conservative world of country music. For us queers from the South, Dolly bridged the gap between the often-hostile homes we’d left behind and the worlds we’d created for ourselves. She was the person who showed us how to exist in both places at once, and now that she’s gone, there’s a real concern about who could even begin to span that divide.
When news of Dolly’s passing hit Tuesday, my social media feed was filled with tributes from countless celebrities and world figures, but the two that stood out to me most were the effusive post from Donald Trump calling for the lowering of flags to half-staff for the week followed by a heartfelt remembrance of Dolly from Hillary Clinton, who called the country star “the best of America” who “did all the good she could, for all the people she could, for as long as ever she could.”
No one else on earth could get those two to agree on anything, but that’s the power of Dolly Parton. Throughout her career, Dolly used her platform to help us see past our differences to the humanity that unites us all, and she always made sure everyone knew that humanity included the LGBTQ+ community. It was inspiring, and sometimes puzzling, to watch her pull it off, too.
