US LGBTQ community mourns 'diva' Dolly Parton

WASHINGTON - At a Washington gay bar, Cameron Austin donned a country western outfit while Dolly Parton's "When I'm Gone" played. "I didn't grow up listening to a lot of the gay icons that we typically think of, but she's the one that's been with me from the very start," Austin said. "Dolly was always there for me." In death, as in life, Dolly Parton was a rare unifier in a highly polarized America. Her legacy is being celebrated by the Trump-controlled White House, honky-tonks across the largely conservative US South, and especially in America's gay bars. Many gays and lesbians saw her as an unexpected ally who advocated for their dignity and rights long before it was popular. "I think she just defied expectations in a lot of ways," Austin told AFP. "When a lot of us have families that we might not have the best relationships with—those might be southern or religious—it makes us long for someone who can come from those same places and be accepting." Climbing out of grinding poverty in rural Appalachia, Parton never planned to become a gay icon but embraced the role fully, showing particular affection for drag performers. She once entered a Dolly Parton drag queen look-alike contest and lost, joking, "I was just dying laughing inside." Her 1991 song, "Family," explicitly called for gay tolerance amid the AIDS crisis. Though reserved on other political issues, she framed LGBTQ advocacy in the moral language of the US South. "I think I've always been accepted in the gay community because I accept them," she told CNN. "They know I'm not judging them." Nadine Hubbs, a professor at the University of Michigan, noted her religious upbringing shaped her views. "Dolly modeled how to be loving and accepting within a deeply Christian framework," Hubbs said. In 2019, she humorously swapped "Jolene" lyrics to "Drag queen! Drag queen!" In 2023, when Texas sought to criminalize drag performances, she supported Brigitte Bandit, a drag queen in Austin, who testified against the bill. Parton later gifted Bandit a custom guitar with the words "To Brigitte, Love Dolly." "She is a diva," Bandit said, urging people to listen to her message and be more like Dolly.