Why T.J. Osborne’s Coming Out Matters

In a time when country music seems more accepting than ever before, why should it matter that a grammy-winning, chart-topping artist like T.J. Osborne of The Brothers Osborne felt the need to make a very public statement about being openly gay in a major trusted new outlet like TIME Magazine?

It seems like an obvious question when the majority of popular music is already on board with gender fluidity and open sexuality, but that’s the whole point… Country Music and the audience it serves isn’t like the rest of pop music. Country radio likes to tout itself as the last defenders of conservative values in mainstream entertainment, and when an artist does out themselves, it’s always someone who was already on the fringe (pun intended Orville Peck) of the genre, or on the sunset stage of their career.

T.J.’s coming out story is important because he didn’t do it for the fame… he already has that. He didn’t do it for the support… he knew he was risking that. He did it so that he can BE the support for the partner he hopes to have by his side one day at an award show or industry function. For the young man on a tractor in central Idaho listening to country music and not seeing themselves represented… their whole selves in any way other than an outlandish outcast.

T.J. Osborne has proven his talent as a country artist. Not as a gay country artist. However he’s laid his career on the proverbial chopping block to prove that you don’t have to hide any part of yourself to be accepted in country music, and it’s up to us… the fans, the radio stations, and the news outlets, to support him in that fact. It may seem amazing that in this day and age we event have to consider the effect of a person’s sexuality in terms of their music career, but how about we consider in terms of its affect on their humanity?

We salut eand support you T.J. Osborne. Much love!