A Monday morning (when I should have been working on an essay), I was browsing through Autostraddle, an online feminist community of LGBTQ+ women and others, looking at Monday Roundtable: Hey DJ Play That (Gay) Song, I found out that Lesley Gore was gay and that made my f**king day.
I think most people will have heard the feminist anthem, ‘You don’t own me’. Either the original or a cover as it is still played today. And I think most people will at least recognise ‘It’s my party’ with the iconic verse, ‘It’s my party, I’ll cry if I want to’ as it has been covered and sampled quite a few times.
Lesley Gore, Lesley Sue Goldstein to her family, was born on May 2 in 1946 and grew up in New Jersey. When she was 16, she got her first number one single with, ‘It’s my Party’. Even with her success, she didn’t opt out of school. In the height of her career, she attended Sarah Lawrence College, performing during breaks and holidays, and graduated with a degree in English and American Literature. Over her career, she was nominated for two Grammy’s, had four top-five hits and was even nominated for an Academy Award for the song, ‘Out here on my own’ from Fame. She later went on to lend her voice and songs to campaigns for reproductive rights and queer justice and she advocated for feminist and LGBTQ+ issues throughout her life.
Lesley Gore herself said that she didn’t know she was gay until her early twenties at college. She wasn’t explicitly open about sexuality, but she said those who knew her well enough knew. In the early 2000s, she hosted the American PBS program, ‘In the life’ about LGBT issues and came out in 2005 as a lesbian. She and her partner, jewellery designer Lois Sasson, got together in the 1980s and lived together for 33 years.
Lesley Gore lived to the age 68 before she died of lung cancer on February 16th, 2015. She is a pop star who deserves to be recognised more than she is. A feminist, a lesbian, and someone’s loved one, she was an inspiration and even though came out only ten years before her death I think she mattered to other LGBTQ+ artists today.
All Images are From Google Images