It’s a fair assumption that Holly Vallance’s Kiss Kiss, Naughty Girl or State of Mind are unlikely to be getting many spins in gay clubs in the future following her mocking of transgender people in her latest track, and vocal support for right wing politics around the globe.
Vallance, who went on to marry billionaire property developer Nick Candy, is unlikely to suffer any loss of income if people stop streaming her tunes from decades ago. But she’s joining a growing list of musicians who built their careers on the back of a gay following only to later turn their back on the LGBTIQA+ communities.
Roisin Murphy spoke out against trans youth
Murphy first found fame as the lead singer of Moloko before launching a successful solo career. She filled dancefloors around the world with Moloko’s Sing It Back, and queer audiences loved her solo output.
She wore costumes created by Perth drag star Ginava, and camp cabaret circus troupe Briefs used her phenomenal track Ramalama (Bang Bang) as the soundtrack to the climax of one of their most ambitious shows. She’s also been interviewed by us here at OUTinPerth several times.
In 2023 she took to social media, commenting on a post from former comedy writer Graham Linehan, where she voiced her opposition to transgender youth receiving puberty blocker medical treatment. She issued an apology, but did not take back the comments.
In 2025 she continued her campaign against people who are transgender sharing dubious statistics about the number of people who identify as transgender or non-binary. Murphy was subsequently dropped from the line up of a music festival in Instanbul. Murphy has not reeleased any new music since making her commments.
Azealia Banks has a long list homophobic comments
Banks 2011 song 212 was called one of the best songs of 2011, and there was a time when it was getting played by the DJs at The Court Hotel every single night, sometimes multiple times.
In the year’s that have followed the rapper has made many comments that have been labeled racist, transphobic and just plain insulting. Banks identifies as being bisexual and says all of her friends are gay, but it hasn’t stopped her dolling out gay slurs on a regular basis.
She’s also shared that her brother is transgender, while also taking to Twitter to deliver her view that gender affirming care is a form of castration. She’s also had online feuds with many celebrities including Zayn Malik, Lana Del Ray, Grimes, Matt Healy, Charli XCX and others. Banks has vowed to never return to Australian and labeled Australian culture “trash”.
Fair to say, 212 is not getting a lot of spins.
Disco Queen Donna Summer claimed she was misquoted
Disco Queen Donna Summer had a stack of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. She is remembered for many great hits including Love to Love You Baby, I Feel Love, Last Dance, MacArthur Park, Hot Stuff, Bad Girls, On The Radio, and No More Tears (Enough is Enough).
In the late 80s she scored a huge career revival when she worked with British producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman. The team behind the hits of Bananarama, Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley crafter a superiuos album for Summer which took her back to the top of the charts.
Summer addressed persistent rumours that she’d made negative comments about the gay community and people dying from AIDS related illnesses. Years earlier New York’s The Village Voice had claimed that Summer had made several disparaging comments at a concert in 1983 including “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” and AIDS was God’s divine punishment against gays”
In an interview with The Advocate Summer denied ever making the statements, she later wrote to activist organisation ACT UP and said it had all been a misunderstanding. Later she took legal action against media outlets who continued to share the claim.
While she fell out of favour with her queer audience for a period of time, Summer was embraced again and her LGBTIQA+ fans were devastated when she passed away in 2012 after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Michelle Shocked shocked audiences with a diatribe
American singer songwriter Michelle Shocked found success as a indie folk musician in the late 1980s. She got wider attention with the release of her third album in 1989, Captain Swing was an unexpected collection of big band music, and it spawned the hit On The Greener Side.
The song’s music video was a gender-swapped parody of Robert Palmer’s iconic video for Addicted to Love. Where Palmer had a backing band of hot models, Shocked had a troupe of topless male models making the same moves. Country singer Shania Twain would later poke fun at the same Robert Palmer clip.
In 1989 when Shocked was nominated for Best Contemporary Folk Recording at the Grammy’s she commented on her appearing alongside Tracy Chapman, Phranc and Indigo Girls reportedly saying the category should be called “They Might Be Lesbians”.
In interviews Shocked said that she didn’t want to label her sexuality, noting that she’d grown up in a conservative Mormon community and had never heard the word Lesbian until she was eighteen years old. Shocked said she’d rather be politically and sexually subversive rather than putting a label on things.
Shocked later married journalist Bart Bull in 1992, the couple divorced in 2004. Her second marriage is to artist David Willardson.
In 2013 she gave an impromptu speech against same sex marriage while performing at a Club in San Francisco. A lot of the audience walked out, and the club’s management cancelled the rest of her show. Then all the remaining dates on her tour were pulled. A few weeks later Shocked appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan Live and denied she was homophobic.
She’s never made another album.
Nicky Minaj’s starship came crashing down
Nicky Minaj was one the cover of OUTinPerth back in 2012. Our exclusive interview with Starships singer also ran in QNews, Fuse, the Star Observer and New Zealand’s queer media too.
At the time the singer was riding high on the charts and her hit Starships was giving euphoric joy to LGBTIQA+ audiences. As Minaj chatted to journalist Nadine Walker she shared her excitement about hearing how Perth’s drag queens were performing tribute shows to her.
In 2019 Minaj pulled out of playing a show in Saudi Arabia saying “I believe it is important for me to make clear my support for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community and freedom of expression.””
Lately though, the singer has pivoted and voiced her support for US president Donald Trump and criticised California Governor Gavin Newsom over his support for transgender youth.
In December 2025 she was interview by Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, on stage at a Turning Point USA conference. Minaj spoke about her Christian beliefs and the need for protections for Christian people.
