Gay Environmentalism

I knew Melissa Etheridge first from watching encores of her 90s hit, “Come to My Window,” on music television. At a time when angst-ridden singers like Alanis Morissette and Jewel ruled the airwaves, I made enough room for Ms Etheridge in my album wish list.

Next, I knew her as the consummate gay activist—Etheridge is openly lesbian, happily married to actress Tammy Lynn Michaels. As with all successful gay people, Melissa truly struck a chord with me, although I haven’t gotten to buying any of her albums yet.

Now comes "I Need to Wake Up," a song Etheridge wrote for Al Gore’s environmental documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. It’s a perfectly pitched soundtrack to a perfectly hair-raising film.



“I Need to Wake Up” has all the trappings of a great Etheridge song, a folksy rock opus interspersed with the songstress’ subtle snarls. This time around, those snarls consist not of Sapphic paeans to women, but bombastic battle cries for the environment.

In 2007, it won the Oscar for Best Original Song, besting three nominations from Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Hudson’s musical Dreamgirls. Etheridge’s win marks the first time a soundtrack to a documentary won an Oscar.

Accepting the award, she thanked Gore and memorably said:

Caring about the Earth is not Republican or Democrat. It's not red or blue, it's all green.

Quite apart from anything, Etheridge could never be faulted for hypocrisy; the woman simply puts word—or lyric, for that matter—into action. She went on the road in 2006 and rode biodiesel-fueled vehicles to all her gigs.

I do think that being gay begets environmentalism. In fighting for the ostracized and the disenfranchised, i.e. gays and lesbians, defending the environment comes as a natural consequence. Mother Nature, ever more oppressed in a world that ultimately revolves around straight men, could surely find an ally or two in us.