When Chappell Roan accepted her MTV Video Music Award for best new artist in September, she had a message for “all the queer kids in the Midwest watching right now.”
“I see you, I understand you because I’m one of you, and don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t be exactly who you want to be,” she said, channeling Joan of Arc in a chain-mail ensemble.
Less than two months later, on “Saturday Night Live,” Roan, who has had a rocket-ship year, debuted her lesbian country song “The Giver,” about how only women know how to truly pleasure women.
Not long ago, such proclamations from one of the biggest pop stars of the moment would have been culturally earth shaking. But this year, even as L.G.B.T.Q. issues played a divisive role in the U.S. election, Roan’s ascent only accelerated.
The 26-year-old is just one of a cavalcade of lesbian and Sapphically inclined stars who dominated pop culture this year while making their attraction to women central to their work and their personas. They don’t prioritize or cater to male audiences, and often outright ignore them, finding great success nonetheless.