Singer and AIDS activist Annie Lennox
has said that she believes sexual orientation is “nobody's effing
business.”
The 59-year-old Lennox returns next
month with her first album in four years. The two-disc Nostalgia
arrives October 21, while a vinyl
version ships next week.
In speaking to Michigan gay weekly
Pride
Source, Lennox was asked, “What do you attribute to the
loyalty of your gay fan base?”
“You see, that's a question you have
to ask the people that you're describing. I can't answer for the gay
community. I truly can't. I just make music, and I have no idea who
is going to listen to it. I'm just the person that I am,” Lennox
responded.
“When I was given this label of
'gender bender,' I really felt it was diminishing in a way. It was
very simplistic. I wasn't bending gender; I was making a statement
in a kind of subtle way. I thought it was subtle, but to some people
it might have seemed overt. I was saying, 'Look, as a woman I can be
equal to a man,' and in this partnership with the Eurythmics, where I
was in a partnership with a man (Dave Stewart), the two of us felt so
connected that my gender didn't matter. In a funny sort of way,
ultimately I was coming out to say, 'Look, I'm not going to be what
you think I am. I'm intelligent. I'm not a dancing doll just
because I'm female and I'm singing. I'm not singing for your
pleasurable entertainment. It's not about that. It's cerebral and
it's heartfelt and it's intelligent.'”
“This is something I've been saying
to a lot of my gay compadres: One day we'll get rid of this word
'gay,' because it's irrelevant. Of course it's terribly relevant
when you are trying to create a campaign. During a human rights
movement, it's terribly important to have labels and to have
platforms that are very identifiable, but ultimately we should just
be fine with everybody no matter what our sexual orientation is.
It's nobody's effing business.”
She also called increasing support for
gay rights “extraordinary” but warned it “won't just be heaven
on a stick.”
“If you think about it, it's really
not that long since people were in the closet about gay rights. It's
been extraordinary. I think that it's accelerating in the west. I
think that things are changing radically, and some things – many
things – for the good. Other things I think will be challenging
for people because now we have a whole new paradigm and it's complex,
as human beings are. There will be upsides and there will be
downsides, and it won't just be heaven on a stick,” she said.
I
Put a Spell on You, the first single off of Nostalgia,
arrived last week.