Prominent queer artists often have a very dedicated queer fanbase, many of whom were fans of them when they were less well-known. When these artists inevitably begin to gain popularity, there is a tendency for queer fans to try to gatekeep the artist, arguing that their songs are primarily for those in the LGBTQ+ community and should not be co-opted by straight people. This has happened with artists such as Girl in Red, Chappell Roan and Renee Rapp. As someone who was a fan of Chappell Roan before she blew up on the internet, I understand the instinct to gatekeep previously obscure queer artists, especially when they are becoming more popular among straight people. While straight people being fans of queer artists is a comparatively minor issue, the co-option of queer artists by straight people is symptomatic of a wider issue: the willingness of straight people to consume our media and utilise our aesthetics to appear trendy, while doing little or nothing to support our community in a meaningful way. 

What most queer people who try to gatekeep artists have an issue with is not straight people simply listening to or enjoying music by queer artists, but rather straight people co-opting queer music and twisting its meaning to reflect their experiences. Straight people are perfectly entitled to listen to and enjoy music by LGBTQ+ artists, and it creates unnecessary division to try and stop this. However, the problem comes when straight people try to claim queer songs as their own and ignore the queerness inherent within them. 

The instinct to gatekeep queer music is likely to stem from the lack of overtly queer music in existence until recent years. When there are only a few songs which are explicitly about queer relationships, it is understandable that queer people want to keep these songs for themselves. Several people on the internet have argued that there are thousands of songs about heterosexual relationships for straight people to, for example, post a TikTok about their partner to, so their use of queer songs to do this is unnecessary. It’s very unlikely that straight people are intentionally ‘stealing’ our music, but through doing this they indirectly claim our music for themselves, which is interpreted by many queer people as taking away music that belongs to us. When mainstream culture and entertainment media is dominated by heterosexuality and queer artists are sidelined, it is understandable that LGBTQ+ fans of queer artists want to protect the small proportion of songs which they see as their own. 

There is also a tendency for straight fans of queer artists to ignore the inherent queerness within their lyrics when discussing their music. For example, many straight people online have used Chappell Roan’s song ‘Good Luck, Babe’ to talk about their experiences with situationships, while ignoring that the song is about the queer experience of dating someone who cannot accept their queerness and chooses a heterosexual relationship instead. This demonstrates straight people’s desire to relate to these songs as far as it makes them appear on-trend, but refusing to acknowledge the queerness within these songs, which cannot be detached from their meaning. While there is nothing inherently wrong with straight people relating to only certain parts of queer songs, the tendency to completely ignore the queer elements of these songs may be indicative of the reluctance of many straight people to associate themselves with queerness beyond just aesthetics and trends. This is likely to be a product of homophobia and the demonisation of queer people in wider society. 

Although the co-option of queer music by straight people is a product of homophobia, and is disheartening to many, it is a comparatively insignificant issue in comparison to the material discrimination and violence faced by many LGBTQ+ people. This should accordingly not be focused on as one of the primary issues faced by queer people, but rather as a manifestation in popular culture of homophobia and heteronormativity. 

Although there are certainly bigger issues in society, and more significant issues faced by queer people, the co-option of queer music by straight people is part of the homophobia ingrained in society on a larger scale. Therefore, gatekeeping queer music is not an inherently bad practice, but should instead be viewed as an attempt by members of the LGBTQ+ community to protect queer music and culture from homogenisation by straight people.