Maren Morris is out and proud this June. “Happy to be the B in LGBTQ+,” the singer captioned an Instagram post Sunday that featured her waving a miniature Pride Progress flag onstage at a concert in Phoenix. Though this is the first time “The Middle” singer has said she’s a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Morris has been a staunch advocate for gay rights and inclusion throughout her career — even going so far as to leave country music over discrimination she said she saw from her fellow musicians.
In 2023, she told The Times that she was leaving her original genre because of the industry’s unwillingness to open its doors to people of color and queer people. “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over,” she said. “But it’s burning itself down without my help.
” Morris has felt that fire firsthand. When Brittany Aldean wrote on an Instagram makeup transformation video, “I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life,” Morris hit back, tweeting , “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.
” Her comment was picked up by right-wing media, leading conservative commentator Tucker Carlson to label her a “lunatic country music person” when he did an interview with Aldean. Morris wore the nickname like a badge of honor, selling T-shirts with the phrase to raise funds for transgender organizations, re.