An Olive Branch at the Dove Awards
By Keegan Osinski
It Felt Like A Birthday Party
Queer Christian Music Artists Show Up to Say This is Their Industry Too
It felt like a birthday party. Folks had traveled from all over the country not only to attend the 54th annual Gospel Music Association Dove Awards in Nashville on Tuesday night, but to hang out with each other and especially queer Christian music artists Flamy Grant (the drag queen alter ego of Matthew Blake) and Grace Baldridge (who performs under the name Semler). The mood was festive and relieved–like everyone present was letting go a held breath.
“OK, now it’s time for our kind of church,” Flamy said soon after arriving to the after party. Holding a ham and cheese biscuit and a cocktail, she said, “I’ve been a good church girl, now I can let loose.”
Flamy and Grace, along with Derek Webb (a former member of the Christian rock band Caedmon’s Call) and a cadre of about 30 others, had gone to the broadly evangelical Dove Awards ceremony in full queer drag. With heels and huge pink wig, Flamy…
Keegan Osinski (she/her)