✨✨On this day, 16 years ago, I shared my truth with the world.
What most don’t know is that I’d made the decision to come out four years earlier in 2006.
Those years leading up to 2010 weren’t about “working up the courage” to come out—they were about intentional design.
That design required a lot of steps. Including, relocating from Nashville to New York City to seek out and learn from leaders on the frontlines of LGBTQ advocacy. It also meant writing my memoir, Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer (@randomhousebooks )
Being a closeted, gay country music artist was a lonely and isolating state of being. All these years later, I reflect with amazement and deep gratitude to be where I am today. It’s not lost on me that I went from alone in a closet to having 320,000 colleagues around the globe. I am fortunate to be at @issworld@issnorthamerica@guckenheimerfood , an organization that sees, values respects, and celebrates everyone, every day, everywhere. What an honor to be in a leadership position here.
Ain’t life something?
#PlanYourWorkAndWorkYourPlan
#LGBTQ #pivot
We are thrilled to announce, this week of 105 Live features Kansas-raised country music artist, author, and activist, Chely Wright! @chelywright
This performance is a part of the LG Desk Series, recorded live from the Lieutenant Governor’s Office. @ktwu11@kansasartscommission
As always, Tune in Saturday at 5 PM or Sunday at 12 PM on the KPR app or on your local KPR station!
👉👉If you read only one thing today, please let it be this. My friend Jane Clementi @janeclementi has a piece in @newsweek titled “Cruelty Is Not Strength,” and it is as urgent as it is heartbreaking.
Jane never asked for this life. She never envisioned herself as the founder of a non-profit bearing the name of her youngest son, Tyler. But the Tyler Clementi Foundation @tyler_clementi_foundation wasn’t born from ambition—it was forged in the fire of an excruciating, life-altering loss.
In 2010, Tyler was an 18-year-old student at Rutgers with his whole life ahead of him. That life was shattered by an unspeakable invasion of privacy when his roommate surreptitiously streamed video of Tyler’s most private, intimate moments for the world to see. Three days later, Tyler left us. He posted “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry” on Facebook, and he was gone.
Bullying isn’t just “kids being kids.” Cruelty isn’t a rite of passage. It is a thief. It stole a young man who was brilliant, kind, funny, and deeply loved.
Jane has turned her shattered heart into a force for justice. She is a powerful, authentic agent of change in a world that desperately needs her light. I wish with everything in me that she didn’t have to do this work—but I am so damn grateful she does.
Please, read her words. Honor Tyler’s memory. Choose kindness. And may we all double down on teaching our children — and a lot of our adults too— that cruelty is not strength, but rather the most glaring proof of weakness imaginable.
Be an #upstander. #TylerClementi #LGBTQ #violin
Pete Finney,
A world-class musician and a world-class human.
I was lucky to play with him for a couple of years back in the day. I could only get him if he didn’t have a show with Patty, because she was his priority. As she should’ve been!
Back in 2006, Pete and I were both in off the road, so we had dinner at the Family Wash on a rainy East Nashville night. After our hours long conversation, I went home and wrote this one. Thanks for song, Pete. Rest in music, my friend.
✨ In Oslo, Norway on December 11, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize.
✨ He was the youngest person at the time to receive the honor. In his acceptance speech, he used the global stage to remind us that humanity was suffering from “a poverty of the spirit” that no level of wealth can fix.
✨“The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and. swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”
#mlk #nobelprize #mlkday
A message just for LGBTQIA+ folks on this Christmas Eve. So many in our community are not invited to be with family this time of year. Tonight and tomorrow can be
pretty rough for a lot of people and I just want to tell you that I see you and I love you.
xo Chely
Our latest conversation, with the incredible Chely Wright, is available now everywhere you listen + on YouTube!
We talk with Chely about pivots and giving ourselves permission to innovate, coming out, losing everything, and building back better, consulting your 90 year old self and so much more.
👉 check out this quote!
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Happy Veterans Day.
I am grateful to Americas’s veterans for their service to our nation.
I have seen firsthand the incredible dedication and sacrifice of those who serve and I am humbled by them and by the families who support(ed) their loved ones’ mission.
Thank you for everything you’ve given. We honor you today and every day.
Photo:
My grandfather, Harold Henry (Army, WW2)
My dad, Stan Wright (Navy, Vietnam)
My brother, Chris Wright (USMC ret, Iraq War)
My nephew, Henry Archer (USAF, active duty, South Korea)
