Hell Bent for Leather: How “United” Speaks Louder than “Born This Way”

Hell Bent for Leather: How “United” Speaks Louder than “Born This Way”

By Walter Beck

Over the last several years, mainstream America has fallen in love with the GLBTQ community, pumping out shows such as Glee and making Chaz Bono a guest on Dancing With the Stars, Lady Gaga sold 7.2 million copies of her sophomore LP Born This Way, I can walk into any Spencer’s or Hot Topic in any mall in America and find rainbow shirts, buttons, lighters, studded belts, etc. In 21^st century American pop culture, gay people are everyone and before I get to the “bitch off” part of this rant, I do wanna say, “It’s about fucking time!”

But here’s where my problem does come in, it’s how gay people are portrayed in American pop culture, usually as pretty boys or perpetual victims. Both portrayals I find more than a little insulting. But for now, we’re just going to tackle the first one. Look for a tirade on perpetual victimhood in an upcoming rant.

I suppose I find the “pretty boy stereotype” more than a little insulting because well, I’m not one and come to think of it, neither are most of my gay friends. Most of us are a pretty grungy looking lot, usually smelling of cigarettes, booze or grit. Oh sure, some of us had our pop music moments, Kris was into Pink and Katy Perry and we all had to at least tip our hats to Lady Gaga for what she has done, both as an artist and as an advocate.

So where are our icons, then? As greasy rock n roll cocksuckers, where are our icons? There’s a few out there, we have Freddie Mercury (and who the hell doesn’t love Queen?) and there’s the queercore movement out of the punk scene. But what about heavy fucking metal? Well we in the GLBTQ community are the luckiest headbangers in the world; we have Rob Halford, the true Metal God batting for our team.

Rob Halford came out in 1998, after he had left Judas Priest, and discussed the issue in an interview with MTV. In the Judas Priest episode of Behind the Music, he further explained that he has gone through the same things most of us in the community have, during the course of the struggle with his sexuality, he dropped hints about it, coming out on stage decked out in full leather; as he said, “I was going out there every night dressed as Glen from the Village People and nobody got it.” And he has admitted that the struggle, particularly during the height of Priest’s career, lead to his further sinking into booze and drugs.

But did he give up? Hell no, he didn’t! Oh sure, he quit Priest, but he kept making music through projects such as Fight, 2wo and Halford. And a few years after he came out in ’98, he rejoined Priest in 2003 and they released Angel of Retribution, a slab of old school metal for the 21^st Century.

See? Halford’s walked in our shoes, he’s been through hell and back and he didn’t let it get the best of him. He’s still the Metal fucking God and he can still kick your ass. The man is 60 years old and he’s still got a set of pipes on him. I saw Judas Priest this weekend on their Epitaph Tour and to hear him tear through cuts like “Victim of Changes”, “Painkiller”, “Blood Red Skies” and “Diamonds & Rust”, I mean, Jesus Christ, the man’s still got it, even after forty years of performing.

Rob Halford doesn’t wave the colors as loud as some of the others, but that’s because he’s only concerned with continual world domination through making kick ass heavy metal (although he has appeared in several pride parades as an honored guest and worked with queercore legends Pansy Division). He is who he is and his continual iconic status in the world of metal should be an inspiration to all of us who are GLBTQ and love heavy metal. Besides, everyone knows that the greatest GLBTQ anthem was in fact written by Judas Priest way back in 1980 on their iconic LP British Steel, the stomping “United”. If you haven’t already, check that one out, it speaks bolder and louder than “Born This Way”.