Seven times Kylie Minogue proved she’s a fierce LGBTQ+ icon and ally
Kylie Minogue has been a celebrated LGBTQ+ icon and ally for decades. (Gregg DeGuire/WireImage/Getty)
Aussie pop icon Kylie Minogue has enjoyed a long and illustrious career, and is set to perform in London at BST Hyde Park on July 13 – so here are her most iconic moments as an LGBTQ+ ally.
From “I Should Be So Lucky” to “Padam Padam”, Kylie Minogue hit the ground running in the 1980s, and hasn’t slowed down since.
The artist, who will headline British Summer Time (BST) Hyde Park on 13 July for the second time following a performance at the festival in 2015 has filled her time in the spotlight with iconic performances, music videos and accolades – and a fierce allyship to the LGBTQ+ community.
Tickets for BST Hyde Park 2024 including Kylie Minogue’s headline set are now available from Ticketmaster.
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‘All The Lovers’ and its LGBTQ+-inclusive music video
The lead single for Kylie’s eleventh studio album, Aphrodite, “All The Lovers” was released in 2010, and was Minogue’s love letter to the LGBTQ+ community.
Aside from the obvious message of the ‘all the lovers’ being welcome and free to express themselves, the single’s accompanying music video was specifically as an “homage” to the LGBTQ+ community, with Minogue fighting against attempts queer censorship.
“I don’t want it to be for shock value or anything like that,” Kylie said (via Reuters) of the music video, which features several scantily clad, well, lovers, before adding, “If you look at the demographics in any of my shows, there is all sorts there.”
Kylie’s charity work for AIDS and HIV charities
It’s no surprise that Kylie has given to many causes over the course of her illustrious career, but one of her most notable contributions to the queer community has been her donations to charities supporting those affected by AIDS and HIV.
In 2010, Minogue sold a halter-neck dress fetching $24,770 for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) in Paris, and years later in 2023, she and Stephen Fry helped the Terrence Higgins Trust reach a landmark £1,000,000 via its charity shop.
When she realised she was a gay icon via a ‘Kylie Night’ drag show
Speaking to Billboard in 2018, Minogue revealed that she first became aware of her ‘Gay Icon’ status in the late ’80s, while visiting Sydney’s ‘Gay Golden Mile‘ – and discovering that a local gay bar called the Albury was doing a ‘Kylie Night’.
“I was in Sydney and there’s a famous bar on Oxford Street called the Albury, and at the time it was the gay bar in the gay area in Sydney,” the BST headliner told the publication.
“I was in the car, my manager was in the car with me along with a couple other people, and someone said: ‘There’s Kylie Night at the Albury tonight.’ And I was like ‘What?!’ I’d never heard of a Kylie Night, but I said ‘We should go! We should go!’ At the time, I’d done an ad for Coca-Cola, and someone said, ‘Ohhh I think someone has gone as a Coke can,'” she joked.
“There weren’t that many versions of me then, I’m talking 1989 or ’90. Now there’s tons of them — choose a look. But I’m the least Kylie person when I’m at any of those nights. I looked like they should not have let me in.”
Concluding, Kylie added: “That’s the first moment I can remember where it was a thing, and it’s been a thing ever since — which is incredible.”
When she helped a gay couple get engaged during An Audience with Kylie
Attended by the likes of Billy Porter, Andrew Scott, Jonathan Bailey and Nicola Coughlan, ITV’s one off An Audience with Kylie special in 2023 was pretty fabulous to begin with.
The whole affair reached peak queer allyship, though, when a gay couple got engaged right there in the Royal Albert Hall, in London.
One audience member – who had met his partner on Kylie’s 2005 Showgirl: The Greatest Hits tour – was passed the microphone under the guise of asking the Aussie superstar a question, before revealing: “This question isn’t to you, it’s to your superfan Martin. So, Martin, would you marry me?”
Martin said ‘yes’, and the couple and their two children celebrated, with Kylie adding: “Thank you so much for coming and congratulations! Hip, hip hooray!”
She campaigned for marriage equality in Australia
Australia only legalised same-sex marriage for gay couples in December 2017 – and it was helped over the line by vocal support from one Kylie Minogue (and her then-partner).
In 2016, Kylie and her then-fiancé Joshua Sasse vowed to not get married until same-sex couples in Australia were afforded the same right.
Appearing at the Aria awards that same year, Sasse and Minogue said: “This is more than a movement, this is people’s lives and we want to say to every single member of the LGBT community that you are not alone.
“You have a voice and if we all stand together we can bring Australia back on the right side of history and make 2017 the year that we can all say ‘I do’ down under.”
She’s collaborated with the world’s biggest queer stars
Most recently demonstrated by collaboration “Midnight Ride” featuring the frequently semi-nude Orville Peck and also frequently semi-nude Diplo, Kylie has an extensive track record of collabing with other gay icons and queer celebs.
Olly Alexander in “A Second to Midnight” and Pet Shop Boys on “In Denial” all join the list, too, proving Miss Minogue puts her money where her mouth is when it comes to supporting queer talent.
She also recently performed onstage with Madonna during the Celebration Tour, with the pair duetting “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”, and a cover of Gloria Gaynor’s queer Pride anthem, “I Will Survive” – and hinted at a collab in the future.
The iconic release of ‘Padam Padam’
The single that launched a thousand memes, recreations, parodies and even marked the final lipsync of RuPaul’s Drag Race, season 16, “Padam Padam” by Kylie Minogue was the undeniable song of summer 2023.
Infectious tune? Check. Iconic choreo? Check. The lead single to a superb album, Tension? Check. An actual Barbie doll inspired by the all-red-everything music video lewk? Check! What more could the gay community have asked for than a song to carry them through.
Tickets for BST Hyde Park 2024 including Kylie Minogue’s headline set are now available from Ticketmaster.
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