Melissa Etheridge Insists That ‘We Can’t Get Gay Enough Right Now’

Feeling too gay? Not Melissa Etheridge.

In a new interview with The New York Post -- yes, yes, the hyper-conservative New York City newspaper that's owned by the Rubert Murdoch-founded News Corp, I hate it, too -- the singer-songwriter says that even after a few decades of being out of the closet, she just can't get enough of it! "It" meaning gay.

"Are you kidding?" she said. "We can't get gay enough right now!"

Etheridge -- who won the 1993 Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Ain't It Heavy" and the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song for "I Need to Wake Up" from Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth -- is set to perform at New York's WorldPride celebration in Times Square this Sunday, though she's certainly not new to the city. According to the Post interview, she's been coming to New York since the '80s, hanging out at Henrietta Hudson and Cubbyhole, two historic lesbian bars that are still up and running to this day.

"New York City always knows how to have a good time," she said.

Since there weren't that many confirmed LGBTQ+ celebrities when Etheridge came out publicly as a lesbian in 1993, shortly before the release of fourth studio album Yes I Am, her coming out meant a great deal to many. That's not such a rarity anymore, something the singer-songwriter reflects on fondly.

"I've certainly had my journey since I came out," she says. "I just hope to be able to bring some inspiration to them."

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