Story Behind The Song - What It Means To Be Gay

  

Long before I discovered girls, I had a boyfriend. From the ages 13 to 19, I had a secret relationship with my best friend. Back in the 1980's you had to keep that type of thing a secret. Ever since then I have had a series of relationships with women but I still have an eye for a certain type of guy. Bisexual from the start and to this very day.

I became a writer back in the early 1990's and one of the first things I wrote was a Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual guidebook for surviving in a somewhat hostile society. Fast forward to 2004, I wrote and published Virgin Gloves. This is the first ever novel in history about a Gay prizefighter. This book was sold on Amazon and in select Barnes & Noble stores. It was reviewed in Ring Magazine and Boxing Digest.

I went on to do my part writing about issues affecting LGBTQ+ people. I worked on political campaigns and attended city council meetings. I was a patron for gay artists. Heck, I even clerked in a gay bookstore. Fast forward to 2026, my sister, who is Trans, told me of her difficult journey so I wrote a song for her called - "I Want To Be A Trans Am." This upbeat, positive alt rock song was meant to raise spirits during what has been an otherwise scary time for Trans people.

Despite hundreds of press releases and contacts over the years my work has generally been ignored by the LGBTQ+ media. I suspect it is because I always refer to myself as a bisexual writer. I even had one newspaper reporter say to me, "Bisexual isn't really gay."

My new song, "What It Means To Be Gay," was built out of that frustration. It questions the political insistence and persistent stereotypes that continue to be referred to as gay. Bisexuals are the largest subgroup of the gay community and yet we are still mostly invisible. This felt like the right time to speak up. If they ignore us again, at least we can sing about it.

Listen to What It Means To Be Gay  Spotify   Apple Music