In an attempt to open up her audience to the gay community, country singer Martina McBride did an interview with Out magazine recently, saying that her small Kansas hometown of 180 people didn’t have any gays, so “it just sort of wasn’t an issue.” Now that McBride lives in Nashville, however, she’s aware of country music’s discomfort with embracing homosexuality and she sure can’t imagine seeing an openly gay person on CMT any time soon.
When asked if President Obama’s election as the first black president could influence country music into accepting an openly gay star, McBride said, “For a country star? Honestly, that’s a tough one. [Sighs] Our core audience, like you said, is very conservative, is very Middle America, very Bible belt. I don’t know. That might be a hard sell. I mean, I would be fine with it. But that’s — I don’t know if we’re ready for that.”