Frank Ocean

Billboard magazine: 25 great gay moments in music

Billboard staff
June 6th, 2013

Equality for LGBT people is today’s defining civil rights issues, and the music industry is playing a significant part.

In honor of LGBT Pride Month, Billboard magazine looks back at some of the most important music-related moments in LGBT progress, including:

• Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! comes out as transgender

• Adam Lambert is the first out gay man to earn No. 1 album

• Frank Ocean comes out

• “Same Love” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

• Fun. establishes the Ally Coalition

Target won't sell Frank Ocean's new CD, calls it a business decision not relating to his coming out

Kia Makarechi - Huffington Post
July 13th, 2012

Frank Ocean's album may currently be the most buzzed about disc in music, but Target isn't interested. Billboard reports the discount retail giant announced it will not sell Channel Orange, claiming the decision was a reaction to iTunes' one-week exclusive. Many are wondering, however, if the move was actually inspired by the fact that Ocean recently came out.

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COMMENTARY: R&B star Frank Ocean comes out without coming out

The Rev. Irene Monroe - SDGLN Contributor
July 12th, 2012

R&B and hip-hop songwriter Frank Ocean has come out. Although it will be hotly contested in African-American circles, some say Ocean is the first major artist to come out in both industries.

For some time there has been rumors about Ocean's down-low trysts. But in Ocean's new album "Channel Orange" to be released July 17, a journalist attending the listening party for the album noted that several of the songs were not heterosexual in messaging but rather they were boldly "addressed to a male love object."

Frank Ocean opens up about his first love, gets support from hip-hop community

Brendan Davis - GLAAD Digital Content Manager
July 6th, 2012

Odd Future's Frank Ocean posted an emotional letter on Tumblr on Wednesday in which he revealed that his first love was a man. Ocean wrote in the post:

“4 summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Every day almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide. Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile."

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