The first openly gay country star was Georgia’s own Kristen Hall; who was well out of the closet as the founder of Sugarland. k.d. lang didn’t come out as an artist until 1992; well past her country music days. Kristen Hall was out at the formation of Sugarland with their first album “Twice The Speed of Light.”
Sadly, Kristen Hall left (?) Sugarland to stay home and “write songs” months after her appearance in the June 21, 2005, edition of The Advocate magazine. That article was titled “Sweet Success: With her country band, Sugarland, poised to become a household word, out artist Kristen Hall is pickin’ on top of the world.”
Mary F. Ferrara
Atlanta
Editors’ note: Good point, Mary. We’re fans of Kristen Hall, but did not list her as the first out country star because, while she was a founder of Sugarland, she was not the primary face of the band and left soon after it gained major success.