Madonna Is a Queer Icon. I Finally Get It.
My 'Confessions II' confession — why her queer icon status finally makes sense to this queer millennial
I have a confession to make. Up until recently, I didn't really understand why everyone loved Madonna so much. I didn't think the Michigan native was uncool — I just never thought much about her at all. I know, I know. I shouldn't be saying that. I'm gay, and this is a queer publication, so I'm essentially a heretic hurling blasphemy. But hear me out: I grew up after the era of Madonna as a brave, ahead-of-her-time queer icon.
I know that older gays love Madonna, and I don't say "older" to be mean. I say it because I'm acknowledging that for two generations above me, Madonna wasn't just a singer ... she was a powerful ally, inspiration and activist. She was Mother. She publicly hung out with her gay friends, created hit songs heavily inspired by the queer community, and she vocally supported AIDS research during the 1980s, back when most Americans looked at gay men like they were lepers.
But by the time I was in college, it was the 2010s. Not only was the AIDS crisis over, but we were on the cusp of the PEP/PrEP era. Obama was in office, and America was so embarrassed by the Neanderthal-like Bush administration that it was ready to push forward into a new tomorrow. I fully believe that there is a massive generational divide within the gay community because of AIDS. For those who lived through the crisis, who watched their friends die, who feared their own diagnosis and who watched religions and the government not only turn their backs but actively attack them, it left a trauma and scar that us younger gays (thankfully and hopefully) will never know.
For people my age, that trauma wasn't lived. It was passed down. It's something older gays talk about living through. It's something you see in movies from the 1990s like "Philadelphia." Madonna is loved and adored by gays who are older than me because Madonna's most powerful displays of allyship happened in an era before me.
But then Trump happened, and the alt-right, and the manosphere, and Christian nationalism (aka Nazism), and the rise of fake news, conspiracy theories and politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert who were elected because they ran on platforms anchored by those conspiracy theories. Things started sliding backwards, and kept sliding, and now we're in a new dystopian era ruled by bigotry.
Politicians, podcasters, influencers and right-wing actors and singers will publicly and gleefully announce that gay people are pedophiles coming for the nation's children. Drag queens are also coming for the children. Also, trans people are coming for the children. Apparently, all members of the LGBTQ+ community are coming for your children. Why? Nobody is quite sure. What is it we plan to do with your children? Who knows. But that doesn't matter because we now live in an era where facts don't matter.
Instead, Americans get aroused by sense and feeling instead of facts and reality. Americans believe the queer community is full of dangerous heathens because they already wanted to believe that because of their conditioned prejudice. Hearing a politician say it makes them feel good and correct, so they see no need to ask simple questions or do even the most basic level of fact-checking. Why start asking questions that might challenge your views when you could just not challenge your views and live your life with a false sense of righteousness, superiority and prestige that's created entirely by delusion? Doesn't that feel so much better? Isn't it so much easier?
I've also noticed that many celebrities who started getting vocal about equality in past years have gone eerily silent now, like Taylor Swift and George Clooney. Homophobia in all its forms is on the rise, yet the number of vocal LGBTQ+ allies is shrinking because they've learned that standing up for marginalized people isn't easy. It can "damage your image" and make you a target of the MAGA hate machine. Being an ally right now requires empathy and selflessness, and those are two skills Americans woefully lack.
But then came Madonna with her "Confessions II" album. First off, we need to address just how viral her press tour was. From appearing with Sabrina Carpenter at Coachella to her pop-up concert in the middle of Times Square, Madonna is making the kind of headlines that the news industry rarely lets 67-year-old women have. Her new album is a legitimate hit. Not only did it debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, but her duet "Bring Your Love" with Sabrina Carpenter charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and the singles "I Feel So Free" and "Love Sensation" have both topped the Dance Airplay charts.
Madonna has also been enthusiastically and unapologetically queer throughout the press tour. Her Times Square concert was done in partnership with Grindr, and she started the concert by saying, "Come on gays, girls, guys, dolls ... happy Pride!" She also had a viral appearance DJing in West Hollywood where she iconically says, "Yay for the gays!" as the audience goes wild. But she wasn't done yet. In August, she performed at World Pride in Amsterdam and even surprised the crowd by bringing out Kylie Minogue.
Madonna isn't just dipping her toes in queer culture or making some vague "maybe this is her subtly referencing equality" comments. She's unabashedly, completely and wholeheartedly diving in the deep end. And damn, it's so much fun to watch. It's also a powerful display of allyship that few artists have the guts to show these days.
I never really followed Madonna or kept up with her career in the past. But now I am. Madonna feels more relevant to me now than she did 10 years ago. For the first time, I'm finally understanding why older gays are always talking about how fearless and rebellious she is. Madonna is part of the queer community, and she doesn't care who knows or who judges her for it. She knows who she is, she knows who her people are and she just wants to celebrate with them.
I guess I used to take her allyship for granted because it seemed like something that happened in the past. She's twice my age, and her massive hits like "Material Girl," "Papa Don't Preach" and "Like a Virgin" came out before I was even born. I just never really felt connected to her or the queer lore that surrounded her. But "Confessions II" doesn't just feel like another album. It feels like a reinvention and a proper introduction to a younger audience. Plus, having such a massively gay press tour during such a massively homophobic era is fucking badass.
I know lots of grumpy trolls outside the queer community love to say that Madonna is "pandering" to stay relevant. But to all of us in the community, we know how much is on the line for celebrities to even bring up gays right now. We know how many have gone completely silent because they fear the negative publicity that comes with being a good, decent person who refuses to discriminate against others (and isn't that the saddest sentence ever?). This is an era where most celebrities are more concerned with protecting their brand than helping those in need. Being a queer ally right now is risky, and there's no benefit to pandering to a group that's so despised and hated.
Madonna isn't one of them. She isn't changing her beliefs to coincide with cultural trends. She's exactly who she's always been and she's never been afraid to show it.
To all the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers out there, I finally get it. I get why she's a queer icon. I get why she is Mother. She's here for us, even when it's not cool to be here for us. She doesn't care. Because she's not just another fair-weather "ally" who will support the LGBTQ+ community only when it's beneficial to them. She's the real thing, and it's great to have her on our team.
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