You know how it is, we've all been there: You're wandering down the street in an unknown city and whoops! You've ended up in a gay sauna. Yes, THAT kind of gay sauna.
Okay, so maybe that doesn't happen to all of us, but it did happy to musician Kacey Musgraves during a recent visit to Sydney, Australia, and it has fans cackling.
Musgraves was recently down under to perform a series of concerts in Sydney and attend the ARIA Awards, the country's awards show similar to the Grammys.
During one of her concerts, Musgraves regaled the crowd with the tale of how she ended up at the Sydney Sauna where local men go to, um, "enjoy each other's company without clothes on," let's say.
Musgraves ended up at Sydney Sauna, one of the city's most iconic bathhouses, and the mere mention had many in the crowd cheering, to which Musgraves quipped:
“Sounds like you’re familiar, you love that place."
She told the crowd that she quickly realized it was not just any old sauna, but couldn't resist going anyway.
“It’s apparently the gay sauna destination of this country … They said wet rooms. What? They said there are 23 serviceable wet rooms."
“This is very gay… this is not meant for me."
Musgraves joked that she went anyway in order to "make friends" because she's "nosy," then quipped:
"That’s where we’re gonna go after the show, they said it’s 24 hours. After-party at Sydney Sauna.”
Sydney Sauna itself posted the video clip, too, calling Musgraves "a true ally." Musgraves has been outspokenly in support of the LGBTQ+ community since the very start of her country career when it was still quite daring to do so in that industry.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
One of her biggest early hits is 2013's "Follow Your Arrow," which urges people to follow their truth instead of what society tells them to do, including when it comes to sexuality. The song was hugely controversial within the country music world at the time.
In 2018, Musgraves opened up to Billboard about part of what motivated her pro-LGBTQ+ stance: guilt over not having stood up for the bullied gay kids in her school while growing up in tiny Golden, Texas, admitting that she was "a lot more redneck than I am now."
On social media, many praised Musgraves for her long record of inclusivity—and there were plenty of jokes too, of course!
Musgraves is in good company with her Sydney Sauna visit. Gay bathhouses had a long and varied history of hosting divas with huge gay followings before most of them were shuttered in the 1980s amid the AIDS epidemic.
Stars like Minnie Riperton, Patti LaBelle, and most notably Bette Midler were known to perform in bathhouses, especially the iconic Continental Baths in New York City, where Midler was such a fixture she was known as Bathhouse Betty in her early years.
Add Musgraves to the roster of beloved gay divas who aren't afraid of a bit of "steam," if you will!
