Chappell Roan Dresses in Drag as the Statue of Liberty for Gov Ball
(Photo by Marleen Moise/Getty Images)
In an epic Pride Month win, lesbian pop star Chappell Roan began her set at the Governor’s Ball (a New York City music festival more commonly called Gov Ball) by emerging from a giant red apple dressed as “the biggest queen of all,” the Statue of Liberty. And while she had your attention, she made sure to use her platform to say what she stood for — that she’d been invited to the White House to perform for Pride, but declined. She said she wouldn’t come until there was actually “liberty, justice, and freedom for all.”
Despite JoJo Siwa inventing gay pop a few months ago, Chappell Roan’s rise to popularity over the past year has been quite the phenomenon. (Or, more specifically, a femininominon.) There are videos of her from not all that long ago performing on the street, largely unnoticed, but this weekend her crowd was a huge mass pink (inspired by Roan’s song Pink Pony Club) and somehow finding a way to do the popular hand motions to her song Hot to Go in the sea of people. The Gov Ball’s TikTok account showed a video from a drone soaring over the crowd, and it prompted a lot of people in the comments to tag Bonaroo, worried the tent Chappell Roan is set to perform in might be too small.
I am definitely biased because I love Chappell Roan’s album The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess, and of course her single Good Luck, Babe!, but I personally am loving watching her rocket to stardom. I hadn’t heard of her until a few months ago when a friend tipped us off to her album in a group chat, and I was instantly hooked to the bubblegum beats and the queer lyrics. It was just so FUN. And the line “I heard you like magic, I’ve got a Wand and a Rabbit” was so perfectly and delightfully clever it almost made me angry. And then a few weeks later, she went on tour with Olivia Rodrigo, and now she’s making headlines everywhere I turn. I especially love this because she isn’t a queer artist couching her lyrics in ambiguous metaphors and lack of pronouns. Her queerness is apparently in everything she says and does, and I love that for her and for us. For example:
She was a Playboy, Brigitte Bardot
She showed me things I didn’t know
She did it right there, out on the deck
Put her canine teeth in the side of my neck
She’s not the first to do this, of course, just the latest in a long line, and just in time for us to add her to all our Pride playlists.
And, most importantly, despite her platform being newly huge, she’s already using it to stand up for what she believes in. Continuing her message to the White House on why she rejected their invitation about not going until we have freedom for all, she said:
“That means freedom and trans rights, that means freedom and women’s rights, and it especially means freedom for all people in oppressed, for all oppressed people in occupied territories.”
I look forward to seeing what she gets up to next.
More Pop Culture News to Keep it Casual
+ Country music singer Maren Morris is bisexual, joining the many celebrities who have used Pride as a vehicle to come out; a time-honored tradition I hope never dies.
+ Billie Eilish talked to Lily Allen about being ghosted, and how she’s reconnected with friends and gets emotional about it sometimes; this line broke my heart: “It was my 20th birthday and I remember looking around the room and it was only people that I employ.” But luckily she has a peer friend group again, so that’s lovely.
+ The Last of Us, Season 2 will only be seven episodes compared to Season 1’s nine, but perhaps very long episodes (and also Season 3 is looking more and more likely)
+ The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 is coming to Prime Video October 3, and will have a brand new intro (also the cast is currently recording Mighty Nein’s first animated series, which is even gayer than Vox Machina)
+ Practical Magic 2 is happening, which might not sound like gay news, but Evan Rachel Wood Bisexual was in the original, so I’m declaring it gay news
+ Lesbian actress Kristen Stewart is set to play lesbian astronaut Sally Ride in an upcoming limited series
+ Criminal Minds: Evolution was renewed for a third season before Season 2 even officially dropped
+ Queer creator Ally Pankiw’s feature debut I Used to Be Funny headlines Bottoms star Rachel Sennott
+ Despite its parent show All-American being the last scripted show left on the network, All-American: Homecoming will end with Season 3
+ Apple TV+ released a trailer of their upcoming series, including Silo, which I think was the only one I clocked with a confirmed canon Sapphic character (though there are definitely queer actors in more; e.g. Jen Tullock in Severance) but I admittedly don’t know much about some of the new upcoming shows
+ Silo also dropped some first-look photos (sadly no sign of the lesbian mechanic yet)
I always felt Maren’s song “I Wish I was” was about comphet. Psyched to see her out and proud!
I appreciate Billie speaking about how impactful it can be to be ghosted. I feel like people throw the term around loosely/act as though it’s normal behaviour, but when you have a close relationship with someone (of any nature) and they suddenly start acting as though you don’t exist, with no warning or communication, it can be straight-up traumatising.
Re the mention of Kristen Stewart here – I believe she IDs as bi/queer and not a lesbian, right? I think she doesn’t usually use labels, but from what she has said (including recently) I get the impression she doesn’t ID as exclusively gay. Correct me if I’m wrong.
I love Chappell Roan but, in 2024, the current occupant of the White House is the ONLY chance that “all oppressed people in occupied territories” have. Wishing it were otherwise won’t make it so. Fight for a better 2028 . . . which will NEVER come, if “Dictator on Day One” gets back in.