10 Times Dolly Parton Cemented Her Status as an LGBTQ+ Icon

This story originally appeared on The Advocate.Dolly Parton, the country music legend whose singular songwriting, towering hair and rhinestone-studded wit made her an American institution, died August 25 at 80.Across a career spanning nearly six decades, Parton wrote an estimated 3,000 songs, sold more than 100 million records and gave the world classics including “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You.”Dolly Parton is an American icon.For generations of LGBTQ+ fans, however, Parton was more than an entertainer. She returned their devotion. She championed marriage equality, rejected religious judgment of queer people, defended transgender Americans and embraced drag culture.Here are eight moments that cemented Parton’s legacy as an LGBTQ+ icon.Dolly loved dragParton knew that imitation could be the sincerest — and funniest — form of flattery.She once secretly entered a Dolly Parton look-alike contest on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, competing against drag performers dressed as the country star. Even after exaggerating the famous Dolly look, the real Parton lost.“I didn’t win,” she recalled during a Good Morning America interview. “I didn’t even come in close, I don’t think.”Dolly rejected religious judgment of LGBTQ+ peopleParton’s Christian faith was central to her life, but she refused to use it as a weapon against LGBTQ+ people.Speaking about her queer fans and Dollywood in a 2014 Billboard interview, Parton turned the language of religious condemnation back on those deploying it.“If people want to pass judgment, they’re already sinning,” she said, adding, “I try to love everybody.”Dolly sang about LGBTQ+ people belonging in familiesParton included gay people in her expansive definition of family long before country music became even moderately welcoming to LGBTQ+ artists and audiences.Her 1991 album, Eagle When She Flies, included “Family,” a song acknowledging that re