Chappell Roan’s Love Letter to the LGBTQ Community

This Pride Month, Billboard asked artists to write a series of love letters to their LGBTQ fans, highlighting what the community means to them, as people and as artists. Below, Chappell Roan recalls finding herself in the queer community and being able to finally tell herself “Thank God I’m gay.”

To the community that saved me:

A love letter doesn’t seem near enough for you. Sitting down racking my brain, trying to shove love into a few paragraphs doesn’t do you justice. The appreciation doesn’t fit into my vocabulary. The best I can do is offer you my project, my songs, my tears, & my eternal love for queerness.

Growing up Christian, thinking being gay was a choice, cast a shell over my heart that could only be broken by your joy and grace towards my scared and confused 18 year old self who thought maybe liking girls wasn’t just a phase anymore. Leaving my religious community to start a new life in Los Angeles was rewarded by the queer community taking me under your wing and nursing me to a happiness I’ve never felt before.

“Thank God I’m gay” is a sentence I thought I’d never say, but it’s true. Thank God I love women. Thank God you taught me to accept myself, inspired me to dress loud, and and dance the way I have dreamt of since I was nine. Thank God you support me and I have the privilege to watch you from the stage radiating freedom and beaming with smiles. Thank God for drag performers. Thank God for strap-ons. Thank God for you.

With eternal love,
Chappell Roan