Kylie Minogue Reveals the Moment She Realized She was a Gay Icon

Kylie Minogue has been a luminary in the LGBTQ community for decades. As part of Pride month, Minogue will take the stage at Manhattan Pride this weekend to cap off the infamous Pride Island party. Formerly known as Dance on the Pier, Pride Island is a 32-year old celebration, and on Sunday, June 24th, Minogue will ring in the festivities right.

The Australian performer has long been heralded by the community as a gay icon. In an interview with Billboard, the artist shared the first time she realized she had reached such a venerable status, one that’s reserved for only the top echelon of pop stars.

“It happened without me knowing it,” she recalled. Describing her rise to fame in the late ’80s, the singer added, “I was in Sydney and there’s a famous bar on Oxford Street called the Albury, and at the time it was the gay bar in the gay area in Sydney.” Sydney, like most major cities, has a stretch of gay bars, dubbed the “Gay Golden Mile.”

“I was in the car, my manager was in the car with me along with a couple other people, and someone said ‘there’s Kylie Night at the Albury tonight.’ And I was like ‘What?!’ I’d never heard of a Kylie Night, but I said ‘We should go! We should go!’ At the time, I’d done an ad for Coca-Cola, and someone said, ‘Ohhh, I think someone has gone as a Coke can,'” she laughed, remembering the scant “versions” of herself that existed in that era. “There weren’t that many versions of me then, I’m talking 1989 or ’90. Now there’s tons of them – choose a look. But I’m the least Kylie person when I’m at any of those nights. I looked like they should not have let me in.”

The Aussie fondly revealed, “That’s the first moment I can remember where it was a thing, and it’s been a thing ever since – which is incredible.” Kylie recently released Golden, her jaw-dropping fourteenth studio album.

Minogue will perform at Pride Island on Sunday, June 24, followed by an intimate performance at the Bowery Ballroom Monday, June 25.

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