We hope you’re enjoying Pride so far. There are many events around town to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, and here at XPN we have special, queer-focused programming all month long. The following videos in this week’s Video Roundup feature a diverse group of artists on the LGBTQ+ community from years of our backlog archive.

In this roundup, we specifically selected artists who have chosen to write or speak publicly about their experiences being queer, and how challenging it is to stand out from the mainstream. Enjoy these performances, and happy Pride!

Laura Jane Grace – NON-COMM 2024 (Full Set)

“Amidst waves of legislation attempting to censor trans artists, there’s something about seeing Laura Jane Grace laugh in the face of both systemic transphobia and gender dysphoria,” wrote XPN’s Claire Brown about this performance from NON-COMM. “No matter how angry her songs get, she sings them with a massive smile on her face. It’s inspiring. If she can handle everything the world is throwing at us, maybe the rest of us can, too.”

UgLi – “spiro.” (The Key Studio Sessions)

Philly’s own UgLi joined us in studio last May on the eve of girldick., a raging EP to follow up their debut album. In the EP’s first track, captured here for Key Studio Sessions, frontwoman Dylan Durante satirizes the experience of taking spironolactone, a medicine for blocking male sex hormone receptors used in feminizing hormone therapy. “Do I look dainty yet? Time for more pills again,” Durante cries, then breaks into a shredding riff.

S.G. Goodman – “All My Love is Coming Back to Me” (NON-COMM 2022)

Living in Kentucky as a gay woman, S.G. Goodman has said she doesn’t always see eye to eye with her neighbors. But, “there are people here who are breaking generational cycles. Those are the stories that matter to me, those are the stories that I strive to tell.” In this song, Goodman foresees all the love she puts out returning to her, in a karmic way.

Meet The Bug – The Key Studio Sessions

In this expansive set from Philly’s Meet The Bug, artist Cariahbel Azemar traverses it all. From unrequited love to childhood bullying to anti-capitalism: there’s a strong queer through-line in her music. In the middle of the set, Azemar introduces a new song, a demo of “Propaganda” as “less about trans rights and more about cis wrongs.”

Shamir – “Cisgender” (The Key Studio Sessions)

No one belts it out like Shamir, who performed this jaw-dropping, solo version of “Cisgender” for The Key Studio Sessions in late 2022. Addressing violence and dehumanization he’s faced, Shamir puts its plainly, “I’m not cisgender, I’m not binary trans. I don’t wanna be a girl, I don’t wanna be a man… And you can take it or leave it or you can just stay back.” It’s a sigh of relief in a song, letting go of trying to “pass” in a cis-het world.

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This week’s YouTube Roundup is made possible with support from Rafferty Subaru. Subaru Loves the Earth.