The Voice kicks off another season and does it with a little bit of rainbow love. Chris Weaver a NYC spiritual leader and drag queen opened up the show. How did he do? Well it lead Adam levine to say:
“You are the first person that has ever auditioned that is giving us an opportunity not the other way around. You are a phenomenal singer, but you are even more special than that to me.”
Let's see his performance for ourselves and decide if we agree with Adam.
When they were building up to his performance, I did not know if Chris was going to come out in drag like other Voice contestants have done across the globe.
Chris did mention to the judges that he a church goer and worship leader and also was a drag queen. “You just said two things that I can relate to,” coach Jennifer Hudson said as she tried to woo Weaver to her team. “I grew up in church, church singing…and I would go and watch all the queens perform.”
For more on Chris we found a great NBCnews.com article on the talent.
It was in Iowa that Chris grappled with, and eventually accepted, his sexuality. He quietly began to go to local gay bars, but his church soon found out. The megachurch was part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, a denomination which allows individual churches to be affirming of LGBTQ people. Unfortunately, his church was not.
The Voice had another LGBT contestant on tonight and that was in the big muscly form of a former NFL football player.
Esera Tuaolo played for the Green Bay Packers, in 1991 and 1992, the Minnesota Vikings from 1992 to 1996, the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1997, Atlanta Falcons in 1998, and the Carolina Panthers in 1999. In 2002, having retired from sports, Tuaolo announced to the public that he is gay, and came out on HBO's Real Sports, making him the third former NFL player to come out, after David Kopay and Roy Simmons.
Tuaolo was truly excited about his audition and fueled the fire on his Facebook page.
You can hear more of Esera's singing over at droptonestudio.com.
Did either one make it? Will we have one of these men, both, or more LGBTQers to cheer on this season? We will have to watch and see.