LGBTQ+ Songs

We have only once had whole boxes of songbooks returned to us. At one point in the 1990s we had a religious summer camp returned the boxes of Rise Up Singing they had purchased because they said we had not advertised that our songbooks including songs that "promoted homosexuality". 

A number of songs on LGBTQ+ songs in Rise Up Singing can be found in the "Unity" chapter, the "Women" chapter, and the "Men" chapter. Some significant songs are:

• The Woman in Your Life by Alix Dobkin
• Singing for Our Lives & other songs by Holly Near (written on the night following the assasination of Harvey Milk)
• Sister & other songs by Cris Williamson
• Glad to Be a Woman & other songs recorded by Meg Christian
• Testimony by Ferron
• Gay Spirit Moving by Charlie Murphey
• Homophobia by Geof Morgan
• Everything Possible by Fred Small
• Let the Woman in You Come Through by Peter Alsop 

Several songs in Rise Again can be found in the "Dignity & Diversity" chapter. 

• Home Is Where the Heart Is by Sally Fingerett
• We Won't Hold Back (on gay marriage) & other songs by Ruth Pelham
• Annie by Fred Small 
• I Kissed a Girl by Jill Sobule
• Names by Cathy Fink - about the AIDS quilt
• The Power of Loving You by Kristen Olsen - about being an ally for LGBTQ+ people
• Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves - by The Eurythmics
• The Ones Who Aren't Here by John Calvi, rec by Meg Christian

Other songs by LGBTQ+ artists not in our songbooks:

• The Village by Wrabel (on trans rights & gender dysphoria)
• Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko
• for the girls by Hayley Kiyoko

Here are some songs that might be called "gay anthems":

• I Will Suvive as rec by Gloria Gaynor
• We Are Family as sung by Sister Sledge
• Closer to Fine by Indigo Girls
• Over the Rainbow as sung by Judy Garland
• True Colors by Cyndi Lauper
• YMCA by Village People
• It's Raining Men by The Weather Girls

Some songs about LGBTQ+ allyship not found in either book:

• Be Who You Are by Two of a Kind
• Hatred Has No Place by Two of a Kind
• Stand Up by Michael Stern
• You Can't Pray the Gay Away by Laura Bell Bundy & Skitsofrenic TV

(more songs to come for this page!)