10 times Dolly Parton cemented her status as an LGBTQ+ icon

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 some of the moments that cemented Parton’s legacy as an LGBTQ+ icon.

Dolly loved drag

Parton 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+ people

Parton’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 families

Parton 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 relatives can be gay, struggling or otherwise unlike one another. Its ultimate message was that “not a one is turned away when it’s family.”

The language reflected its era, but its embrace was unmistakable: LGBTQ+ people belonged.

Dolly made clear that all families were welcome at Dollywood

In 2011, a lesbian visitor to Dollywood’s Splash Country said an employee forced her to turn a marriage equality T-shirt inside out.

Parton responded publicly and apologized for the treatment the woman experienced.

“Everyone knows of my personal support of the gay and lesbian community,” Parton said. She emphasized that Dollywood welcomed all kinds of families and promised to investigate what happened.

Dolly supported women in power, including Hillary.

Parton did not merely tolerate her queer fan base. She celebrated it.

“I have a huge gay following, and I’m proud of them,” she told The New York Times in 2016. "Sometimes some of them look more like me than I do."

Plus, she supported then-rumored presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"Hillary might make as good a president as anybody ever has... I personally think a woman would do a great job. I think Hillary's very qualified," Parton said, adding. "I'll certainly be behind her."

Dolly helped bring a transgender story to the screen

Parton wrote "Travelin’ Thru“ for Transamerica, the 2005 film about a transgender woman traveling across the country with the son she had only recently learned existed.

The film’s casting of cisgender actor Felicity Huffman in the central role would later draw criticism, but Parton’s song became an anthem about transformation, uncertainty and finding the courage to continue forward.

“Travelin’ Thru” earned Parton an Academy Award nomination for best original song. She performed it during the 2006 Oscars, bringing a song written for a transgender story to one of the world’s largest stages.

Dolly opposed restrictions targeting transgender people

When North Carolina’s anti-transgender “bathroom bill” became a national controversy in 2016, Parton responded with compassion — and characteristic humor.

“I think everybody should be treated with respect,” she said on CNN. “I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are.”

She then brushed aside the manufactured panic surrounding public restrooms by joking that when she needed to go, she would use whichever bathroom was available.

Dolly stood up for marriage equality

Parton publicly supported marriage equality years before the U.S. Supreme Court made it the law of the land.

She later voiced support for same-sex couples fighting for the freedom to marry in Australia, opening with a characteristically Dolly joke: “Why can’t they be as miserable as us heterosexuals in their marriages?”

Her serious message was equally direct.

“I think love is love and we have no control over that,” Parton said. “I think people should be allowed to marry.”

Dolly put a gay love story at the heart of her Netflix series

In 2019, Parton used her Netflix anthology series, Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, to tell a distinctly queer family story.

The episode “Two Doors Down” centered on a gay couple, played by Andy Mientus and Michael J. Willett, navigating family secrets and rejection during a New Year’s Eve wedding. Some viewers reportedly walked out of a screening at Dollywood after learning the two men were romantically involved.

Parton stood behind the story.

“It’s important that I touched on everything that all families go through,” she said. “Everyone has gays in their family.”

In 2020, “Two Doors Down” won the GLAAD Media Award for outstanding individual episode in a series without a regular LGBTQ+ character.

Dolly defended transgender people as Tennessee attacked their rights

In 2023, Parton was asked about a wave of anti-transgender laws enacted in her home state of Tennessee, including a ban on gender-affirming health care for minors.

Parton, who generally resisted partisan political debates, said the issue was about the lives and dignity of people she knew and loved. She noted that transgender, gay and lesbian people were among her relatives and employees.

“I just want everybody to be treated good,” Parton told The Hollywood Reporter. “They cannot help that any more than I can help being Dolly Parton.”

She said she had witnessed the pain LGBTQ+ people experienced when they were targeted and rejected. Parton’s conclusion drew upon the Christian faith she repeatedly invoked in defense of queer people: Judgment belonged to God, she said, and everyone was one of God’s children.