Singer Angel Olsen Comes Out on Instagram
Star is among a list of celebrities to come out during the pandemic
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
Indie-folk singer Angel Olsen
has a message for her followers
— and her partner.
In a post on Instagram on
April 16, Olsen wrote “My beau,
I’m gay” alongside a photo of her
partner, Adele Thibodeaux, who
has written impassioned captions
about their relationship since last
December. The post includes photos
featuring Thibodeaux with
bright orange hair and brown loafers
next to a vast wooden bear
statue.
Thibodeaux is a writer who has
worked on the HBO series High
Maintenance, while Olsen, 34, is
known for her critically acclaimed
album release of “All Mirrors” in
2019.
According to Pitchfork, the singer
is releasing a new collection of
work next month called “Song of
the Lark and Other Far Memories.”
Like many LGBTQ folks, the
pandemic may have played a role
in Olsen’s coming out process. Two
years ago, many of Olsen’s fans
hoped that she would come out as
gay or bisexual. That year, Olsen
said to the New York Times that
she was straight “for now, until
further notice.”
Olsen is among several celebrities
to come out in 2021, including
“Bachelor” star Colton Underwood,
who came out on April 14.
In February, former WWE Superstar
Gabbi Alon Tuft came out
as transgender, Nats Getty, the
long-time partner of trans You-
Tube star Gigi Gorgeous, came
out as transgender and non-binary
in January, while another
YouTube personality, JoJo Siwa,
also came out to her fans earlier
this year.
FACEBOOK
Indie-singer Angel Olsen came out as gay on Instagram.
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➤ SISTERS, from p.28
came standard pop music, women
were shut out, except as singers.
(The robotic electronic loops
of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”
set the stage for synth-pop and
techno, and Cher’s “Believe” was
the fi rst hit song to use Autotune
as a distortion pedal for the voice,
but the credit for these songs’ innovations
has mostly gone to their
male producers.) While Oliveros
criticizes the racism and sexism of
the classical music academy hand
in hand, all 11 of the musicians in
“Sisters with Transistors” are white
and either American or European.
The fi lm’s time frame ends in the
mid ‘80s, with Laurie Spiegel’s creation
of a program to make music
on the Macintosh.
At only 84 minutes, “Sisters with
Transistors” is a brief introduction
to a subject that deserves a much
longer treatment. (The tendency to
blow up documentaries into docuseries
for streaming services has
rarely served them, but this might
have been better as a more comprehensive
TV series spanning
three hour-long parts.)
As such, it occasionally feels contradictory
and hesitant at times.
Laurie Anderson narrates the fi lm,
and contemporary women making
electronic music are heard, but
they don’t get to talk about their
own music. Considering that Anderson’s
“O Superman” samples,
pitch-shifts, and loops her own
voice to use it as a substitute for
percussion in ways that were almost
unprecedented in pop/rock
music in 1981, one would like to
hear her own opinion about her
music’s place in this history.
The relationship between classical
and pop music is never explored,
although the fi lm does
show the surprising openness
TV, movies, and even advertising
have often shown towards adventurous
music. But it tells an
essential story that’s been buried:
women, including queer and
trans women, shaped and even
created the technology which is
ubiquitous now while rarely reaping
the benefi ts.
“SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS”
| Directed by Lisa Rovner
| Metrograph Pictures | Starts
streaming April 23rd
GayCityNews.com | April 22 - May 5, 2021 33
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/GayCityNews.com
