Inclusive Wedding Songs – Changing Pronouns to be LGBTQ Friendly

Wikipedia Encyclopedia says Gay-friendly or LGBT-friendly are the places, policies, people or institutions that are open and welcoming to gay people (to include all members of the LGBTQ community) to create an environment that is supportive of gay people and their relationships, respectful of all people, treat all people equally, and are non-judgmental.

Have you ever related to a love-song so much, but it was about a girl and you wanted it to be about a guy? Or maybe the opposite of that? We raise our hands to this. There are so many times we have related strongly to a song but it’s about a guy when we want it to be about a girl. We’ve also had clients that have purposely chosen a different song than the one they really wanted because the pronouns (he, she) have not matched their specific relationship.

This is where artists such as Kesha, Bob Dylan, and Benjamin Gibbard come into play. Recently, these three artists, along with St. Vincent, Valerie June, and Kele Okereke, released a 6-track album titled “Universal Love – Wedding Songs Reimagined”. The album features well-known songs with the pronouns switched. For example, Benjamin Gibbard, lead vocalist of Death Cab for Cutie, redid The Beatle’s “And I Love Her” so that it is now sang as “And I Love Him”.

These recreated songs are inclusive and recognize the LGBTQ community. One of the tracks on the album, “I Need a Woman to Love Me”, features Kesha officiating a same-sex wedding in the music video. The original, by Janis Joplin, was titled “I Need a Man To Love Me”.

What is your take on this album?