Brooke Eden Won’t Apologize to Country Radio for Being Gay

“I had this really introspective moment where I was like, 'I'm asking everyone around me to change without doing anything about it,’” she tells Attitude. “I hope that being out and visible to the public, I can help other queer people who might live in the middle of nowhere and feel like they're the only ones.”

Eden is one of a string of country artists who have come out in recent years, and she joins a growing effort encouraging the industry, and specifically country radio, to be more inclusive. In February, T.J. Osborne, one half of the duo Brothers Osborne, came out in an interview with Time magazine, becoming the only openly gay artist at a major country label.

Now, though, Eden can’t get enough of speaking and singing publicly about her queerness. “It became no question to me as to why my music didn’t work the first time around, because I wasn’t able to be fully me,” Eden told the Washington Post, pointing to her recent singles as a new beginning. “Hilary is such a huge part of my life, and she’s such a huge part of my happiness, that there’s no way that I can’t talk about her now. I wouldn’t be able to put out this music if I didn’t talk about our love.”

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