Lesbian Blues Singers

by Susan Stryker, Director, GLBT Historical Society


This month's columns highlight the role homosexuality played in the fabled Harlem Rennaissance, a dazzling outpouring of African-American cultural achievement early in the twentieth century. Much of the information presented below is drawn from the research of the late Eric Garber, whose papers are held by the GLBT Historical Society of Northern California.

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Several of the classic African-American blues singers of the 1920s and '30s were lesbian or bisexual women -- or at least rumored to be. Ethel Waters had a volatile relationship with dancer Ethel Williams, and the pair's frequent lovers' quarrels sometimes took place in public. Waters played on the public knowledge of her tempetuous relationship, often beginning her act by asking the orchestra leader, "Where's that partner of mine? Where's that Ethel Williams?"

Ma Rainey's legendary number, "Prove It On Me Blues," is a testament to the visibility that queer sexuality could attain in African-American popular music. Her lyrics speak unmistakably of lesbian experience:

They say I do; ain't nobody caught me,
Sure got to prove it on me;
Went out last night with a crowd of my friends,
They must have been women 'cause I don't like no men.

Wear my clothes just like a fan,
Talk to the gals just like any old man;
'Cause they say I do it, ain't nobody caught me,
Sure got to prove it on me.

Other performers were more circumspect. Alberta Hunter lived with Lottie Tyler, niece of pioneering black entertainer Burt Williams, throughout most of the 1920s, although they rarely socialized with each other in public. Bessie Smith also kept her lesbian attachments private, but she publicly associated with gay men. Bricktop denied any lesbian involvements herself, in spite of running popular gay clubs in Paris and New York. She did, however, maintain highly visible friendships with internationally known gay people such as Elsie De Wolf, Elsa Maxwell, and Cole Porter.

Perhaps the most overtly queer black blues singer of the era was Gladys Bently, pictured above. She cultivated a specifically lesbian on-stage persona, often wearing a tuxedo or other masculine garb, and was widely know as the "Bulldagger Who Sang the Blues." She flirted openly with women in the audience and dedicated songs to current and former girlfriends. In later life Bently married a man, and claimed that her lesbianism was the result of a "hormonal imbalance" that had since been medically corrected.