Kacey Musgraves is facing backlash from some fans after she showed support for immigrant families during a birthday performance.
The Grammy-winning country singer celebrated her 38th birthday on Friday by marking the opening night of her Middle of Nowhere tour in Chicago. At one point during the performance, she paused the show and urged the audience to donate to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights as her “birthday wish.”
“It’s a wonderful organization, and they help give aid — legal aid — and money to children whose parents have been deported unfairly,” Musgraves said on stage. “It’s not a political thing. It’s just, these kids need help.”
She continued: “They have no guidance and no way to get through this thing without their home base or their parents. So anyway, 50 cents, whatever the hell, I don’t know, whatever you want to do, but that would mean a lot to me. If you don’t want to, that’s totally fine too.”
The plea was met with applause and cheers from her crowd at the United Center. However, once videos of the moment started circulating online, conservative political commentators were quick to unleash their wrath on the “Follow Your Arrow” singer.
Kacey Musgraves is an amazing artist. She has been beloved by the LGBTQ+ community for a decade now.
If you’re not familiar with her music, I would recommend starting with the song “Follow Your Arrow”, which is about living your life as authentically as possible and very explicitly supports the queer community. Here’s the chorus:
“Golden Hour”, which is her Grammy-nominated album, is an absolute masterpiece and played a significant role in my first queer relationship. The song “Rainbow” still makes me tear up and look back fondly on my coming out years. I have seen her a few times in concert and she always dedicates it to the LGBTQ+ community.