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Kacey Musgraves's 'Rainbow' Music Video Is an Ode to Queer Youth

Kacey Musgraves's 'Rainbow' Music Video Is an Ode to Queer Youth

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The country star followed up her Grammys triumph with a moving tribute for LGBTQ fans.

Gay icon and Grammy Award winner Kacey Musgraves gives a nod to her sizable LGBTQ fanbase in her new music video for "Rainbow."

The country singer followed up her massive Grammys night -- where she took home four awards, including Album of the Year for Golden Hour -- by releasing a new video for the ballad, which she also performed at last night's ceremony.

While it comes as no surprise that Musgraves, a known supporter of the LGBTQ community and frequent purveyor of rainbow imagery, would make some reference to queer people in a song titled "Rainbow," the visuals of her new video comes across as an especially touching tribute to gay fans of country music.

Kacey, singing from an Eden-like rainbow-filled oasis, is accompanied by scenes of a young gay man and other outcasts to complement the song's themes of self-acceptance.

The video's visibly queer character puts on lipstick and endures a tense parental conflict, presumably about his sexuality, as Kacey sings uplifting lyrics like, "If you could see what I see, you'd be blinded by the colors."

The song's themes of self-acceptance come across as especially supportive as she takes a seat at the family dinner table and gazes lovingly at the young man, who appear especially worn out by his parents' argument over his identity. As one of the only voices of LGBTQ acceptance in country music, the scene symbolizes the role Musgraves' accepting music may play in countless rural homes.

The video ends in an uplifting mood with the family united, holding hands.

Musgraves, a rare voice of LGBTQ acceptance in country music, said the genre's non-inclusive environment has left her "pissed":

"What I think it is -- someone told me this recently and it broke my heart -- they said, I've grown up loving country music and I grew up gay in a small town, and country music has always felt like a big party that I wasn't invited to. Oh my god, you're invited to my party," Musgraves said at the New Yorker Festival last year.

"It's crazy that a certain kind of a person could feel excluded from a genre that's so real -- or supposed to be so real. That has always really pissed me off. Because I love the genre so much, I felt, Well fine, maybe I'll just have an all-gay audience."

Watch the music video for "Rainbow" below.

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