To celebrate Pride in Toronto this week, we brought in five LGBTQ-themed songs to play and talk about. The songs spanned from 1983 to 2017, and included a diverse range of songwriters and topics. Musical book writer Stephen Witkin joined us for the show. Special thank you’s to Hema for handling our social media, and @SharonRose2012 for tweeting in!

We talked about:

• Bruce and Stephen’s own coming-out stories
• Heavy-handed vs. light and fun approach with the “message” in LGBTQ-themed songs
• Acceptance of LGBTQ songwriters and songs in popular culture
• Universal vs. LGBTQ-specific messages in the songs
• Stephen’s blog: From Here to Epiphany

We featured these songs (click on the titles to download the lyrics):

• I Am What I Am – written by Mark Owen, performed by Gloria Gaynor, featured in the musical Les Cage aux Folles
• Small Town Boy by the Bronski Beat
• Boys in the Street by Greg Holden — check out the article on Time Magazine
• Boyfriend by Tegan and Sara
• I’m Gonna Make Him Fall in Love With Me by Josh ‘Hat’ Lieberman

Listen to the show