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So the idea here (as suggested by Mike Dunbar, Vontanner and Bob) is to have a category that deals with gay issues/viewpoints lyrically? If we remain consistent with how we've done the awards since day one, that would actually be possible assuming 1 condition was met:

There are enough quality songs and/or albums that focus on that viewpoint/topic, that are still in the running when we've narrowed the 150,000 songs and 10,000 albums down to the nominations quantities. That's where things get tough as I can only think of 1 song so far that had a specifically gay viewpoint that is also likely to get a nomination. (It's actually among my favorite performances so far of the material I personally have heard.) But it seems, so far at least, unlikely we'd have a large enough collection to add it as a genre, but it's not impossible based on previous years. We don't finalize the list of genres include in the awards until we've narrowed the songs and albums way way down and determine what is still remaining. What we don't want to do is nominate weak songs/performances/albums simply to create a new genre. Clearly some of the smaller, less common genres do have lower bars to exceed to gain a nomination as compared to large genres like Singer Songwriter, Pop, Rock, Rap, Jazz, Country etc.., we still have to have a collection of strong songs in large enough numbers to represent it nonetheless.

I also think there's another issue to consider as well. If we accept a viewpoint (i.e., a gay and lesbian perspective) as a legitimate music genre, then we have to also accept other common viewpoints that are expressed across a large number of songs. Some of those viewpoints are benign.. some are controversial. Using the harshest example would be people who hold intolerant viewpoints on any number of issues. Would we accept that collection as a genre in and of itself? What about political viewpoints? We probably have enough political songs to have a genre for that.. but what if the collection only covers anti conservative viewpoints? Or anti liberal viewpoints? Then what do you do? I'd rather see the best of those songs end up in the novelty category rather than a "liberal" or "conservative" genre. What about music that takes a sexist viewpoint? There's plenty of that to be found in Metal, Hard Rock and Rap. Should we consider a genre for that viewpoint? I'd say no. But within their musical styles, if the work merits attention, it would be nominated within Metal or Rap etc... How about lyrics that take a sexually explicit viewpoint of any type? Or like Mike suggested, how about one of the most openly discriminated groups in the world.. Bald men.. or fat women.. or any number of other conditions people are born with and discriminated against for?

I think beyond this important discussion, we still have to go back to square 1. That means we need enough quality submissions focusing on a gay/lesbian story/viewpoint (and as someone mentioned, it's not uncommon for gay love songs to be written gender neutral, so who can tell the intent?) and so far that seems unlikely. But we still have 100,000 more songs to sort through so anything is possible.

Brian

PS: I've written (and co-written) and performed songs from a gay point of view many times Bob. One of my personal favorites is called "Send a message" which is about a gay man lamenting the loss of many of his friends to aids and reflecting on his former partner's impending death from it as well. In that particular case, I co-wrote it with my good friend who did, in fact, die of aids last year. I never felt awkward about performing it and now it has even more meaning to me. Until this post, I hadn't really thought of the fact it was from a "gay" characters point of view.. and in some ways, I really don't want to frame it that way, even though it's true. To me, it's a human song about loss and regrets and coming to terms with death. The sexual identity of the characters is irrelevant to me.