Country music singer Chely Wright has
said the United Service Organizations (USO) stopped inviting her to
participate in overseas tours to entertain the troops since she came
out gay.
Wright, who
married her girlfriend, LGBT rights activist Lauren Blitzer, on
Saturday in Connecticut, announced she's a lesbian last year in
her memoir Like Me, becoming the first mainstream country star
to come out gay.
In
an interview with OUTImpact.com, Wright said the USO has
overlooked her since coming out.
“I began touring for the Military in
the mid-90s at the beginning of my career, going overseas to parts of
Europe, Japan, different parts of Asia, and when the action in the
Middle East began, I was actually the first artist to go play in Iraq
in 2003. The first artist of any genre to play in Iraq and
Afghanistan after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and I’m really proud
of that fact. I've been to Iraq and Afghanistan six or seven times,
but since my coming out, I have not been invited back,” Wright
said.
“I've done hundreds of shows overseas
for the troops, and I would venture to guess in country music, nobody
has done more shows for the troops than me, and I have not been
invited back.”
“If the guys and gals who have the
boots on the ground or in the air overseas were asked, I think they'd
have me back. It's the old school mentality of the upper brass I
think that are held back by the old ideology, that's my belief,”
she added.