In a recent interview with Michigan
LGBT weekly PrideSource, Cher talked about her status as a gay icon.
Cher, 72, is currently promoting her
twenty-sixth studio album, a collection of ABBA covers titled Dancing
Queen.
When asked when she was first aware of
her status as a gay icon, Cher answered that it might have happened
in the late 70s but she wasn't certain.
“How does it happen? I have no idea!
It's just like, we made a pact and we're a group and that's it,”
Cher
said.
Cher recalled an instance in which the
LGBT community supported her.
“I remember when I was doing [the
play] Come Back to the Five and Dime [in 1976] and we had
standing room only before we got reviewed, and after we got reviewed
nobody came except the community – the community, and little
grey-haired old women who came to matinees. We managed to stay open
until we could build back up the following. Also, the gay community,
they just don’t leave you, they stay with you; that’s one thing
that always keeps you going,” she explained.
“What does that loyalty mean to you?”
“There’s been sometimes where I was
just, you know, heartbroken about things, but it always gives you
hope when there are people who think that you’re cute and
worthwhile and an artist. It’s a great thing to have in your back
pocket,” Cher answered.