A wise sage by the name of Kacey Musgraves once implored her listeners to “kiss lots of boys, kiss lots of girls, if that’s what you’re into,” and more than a decade later, it seems another pop-country chanteuse has opted to follow those sacred instructions. Maren Morris, the Texas-born-and-bred singer-songwriter whose songs have netted her five Academy of Country Music awards (not to mention a Grammy), came out as bisexual on Monday, writing on Instagram that she’s “happy to be the B in LGBTQ+.”
In a perfect world, a 34-year-old woman coming out as bisexual wouldn’t be news, but unfortunately the world that we actually live in—and Morris’s country-music milieu in particular—can still be hostile to such disclosures. Still, it’s heartening to think of Morris joining the ranks of Orville Peck, Lil Nas X, and other openly LGBTQ+ artists who choose to make their art within (or at the fringes of) the country scene.
If Morris isn’t necessarily surrounded by queer community in the world of mainstream country music, fans are definitely making her feel welcome on Instagram, where the comments section on her coming-out post has become a veritable Pride parade of rainbow-flag emojis and hearts. (A quick dig through the annals of country history shows that Morris is far from the first woman in her genre to be attracted to other women, of course; the late country singer Wilma Burgess, who had over a dozen Billboard-charting singles between 1965 and 1975, was an out lesbian.)
Hopefully, Morris’s candidness about her sexuality will inspire country to get a little more inclusive—and inspire her fans wrestling with their own LGBTQ+ identities to feel a little more comfortable loving who they love…or, at the very least, blast the Chicks’ iconic, deeply sapphic-coded country ballad “Goodbye Earl” at top volume. (I mean…killing an abusive man and then peacefully making jam with your bestie for the rest of your life? Sounds pretty queer to me!)