Desmond Child Gay Gammy Winner

Grammy winning songwriter producer Desmond Child talks about his upcoming performance at Ty Herndon and GLAAD’s Concert for Love and Acceptance that takes place at City Winery in Nashville, Tennessee on June 12th with Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™. Child will join other celebrities and artists including country music legend Crystal Gayle, Melinda Doolittle, the lesbian alternative-country rock band Antigone Rising, Shelly Fairchild, Billy Gilman, Jennifer Knapp, Jamie O'Neal and Pastor Stan Mitchell of GracePointe Church. This inaugural country music event takes place during the 2015 CMA Music Festival and will be co-hosted by Herndon and fierce LGBT ally Meghan McCain. The event will also kick off GLAAD's Southern Stories Summer Tour. Sarah Kate Ellis GLAAD President & CEO stated, "Music connects us and transcends our differences. For the first time in Music City, artists will join together to voice support for the LGBT community and help us accelerate acceptance, not only in country music, but across the nation." We talked to Desmond about how he became involved in this groundbreaking concert event and his spin on our LGBT issues.

When asked what his personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights Child stated, “I personally do as many things as I can regarding our fight for marriage equality and every aspect of our lives. I’m married to my partner of 26 years now and we actually got married about a year and a half ago. We have 13 year-old sons Roman and Nyro and we had struggled to get married long ago in California then they stopped the marriages and so we finally did it in Central Park and our sons were our ‘best men’. So we want our family to be acknowledged as legitimate; sometimes we’re so marginalized. When people talk about LGBT families it’s like Yeah, yeah but they’re not like real families like the kind that have rights and stuff and we want to put a face on what we are doing. We’ve always been part of Family Pride and we also made a movie called TWO: The Story Of Roman and Nyro to talk about the 12 year journey of having a family.”

For nearly three decades songwriter/producer Desmond Child has reigned as one of music’s most successful creative forces. His list of accolades includes Grammy awards, 70 Top 40 singles and songs that have sold over 300 million albums worldwide. His collaborations have included Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Ricky Martin, KISS and Cher. His hits as a songwriter include "I Hate Myself for Loving You", "Livin' on a Prayer", "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Bad Medicine", "I Was Made for Lovin' You", "Dude (Looks Like a Lady), "Angel", "What it Takes", "Crazy", "The Cup Of Life" and "Livin' la Vida Loca". His latest projects include Joss Stone, Kelly Clarkson, The Scorpions, Hilary Duff, Meatloaf, Ace Young and Bon Jovi. Desmond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008. Child lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his husband Curtis Shaw and their twin sons, Roman and Nyro.  
For Info & Concert Tix: glaad.org/nashville
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