This year, a week before the Dove Awards were to take place, Flamy Grant posted on social media that “tickets to the Doves are now sold out, but if you snagged one a couple months ago in the nosebleed section with us, can’t wait to hang!”
According to the post, Grant attended the event “to have a good time as out and proud queer Christian musicians,” rather than it being “a protest…at least no more of a protest than queer people existing in spaces that don’t often welcome us is by default.”
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“We’re there to represent, take up our little bit of space, and bring our queer joy to an awards show that, frankly, needs it,” Grant added. “A lot of us grew up listening to CCM and watching the Doves. While we’re not interested in asking for acceptance or approval from the GMA (we accept and approve of ourselves, thank you very much!), this little queer expedition party is about planting a metaphorical pride flag in territory that hasn’t been willing to wave one for us.”
Concluding, Grant said, “Queer people have always been in CCM, and we’re inviting allies to join us in making it a safer place for us to exist as we are. And to PARTY! See y’all at the Doves.”
Dove Award-Winner John Cooper Addresses Derek Webb Wearing a Dress to the Dove Awards
ChurchLeaders reached out to Skillet frontman John Cooper, whose band was awarded Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year this year for “Dominion: Day of Destiny,” to get his opinion on Webb, Flamy Grant, and Semler’s attendance at the Christian awards ceremony.
Cooper shared that he was hesitant to respond because he didn’t want to fuel the fire of a situation that didn’t need it, but he was encouraged by friends and pastors to speak out.
Cooper said that there are “lots of Jesus followers in the industry that may not know the best way to speak,” adding that he wanted to stand for biblical truth “as opposed to being compromised.”
“Obviously, they’re just trying to get attention, they’re trying to disrupt, and they’re going about it in a clever way,” Cooper said. “And the truth is they are being the aggressors in this.”
“They’ve been trying to antagonize the Christian music industry, including Christian artists, and have attempted to get them to affirm their views on the LGBTQ+ movement for years,” Cooper said.
“The truth is,” he added, “they would not show up at a Muslim music celebration to do the same” because that would be “a little bit too insensitive. You don’t want to go in and just start stomping on somebody’s religion. The laws of intersectionality would apply.”
