Had Vassy listened to her music teachers when she was seven-years-old, she might never have become a certified Platinum recording artist with multiple chart-topping dance hits.
“I always wanted to do music, even from a young age,” says the Australian-born vocalist. “But I was actually kicked out of school choir. I was told I don’t have what it takes. Can you believe that shit? I have sort of a weird voice. But I think it’s because I was just instinctively an artist, at a young age. I probably wasn’t singing the melody like the rest of the kids, following protocol. I was totally doing my own little thing.”
It’s that same powerful, brassy, yet soulful voice that’s propelled Vassy’s rise. The 34-year-old has had five different singles reach the top ten on Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs Chart, including No. 1 hits “We Are Young,” “Hustlin’,” and “Nothing to Lose,” her most recent project, produced by the “Godfather of EDM,” Tiësto. Her trademark voice has also been featured on popular singles like Tiësto and KSHMR’s “Secrets” and David Guetta and Showtek’s “Bad,” which earned her an award in 2015 at the 30th Annual International Dance Music Awards.
Vassy has always been an unapologetic defender of the downtrodden, outcasts, and the marginalized, speaking out against bullying, working with people with disabilities, advocating for at-risk teenagers, and serving as an LGBTQ ally and ambassador to the NoH8 campaign.
“When I was 14 in high school, one of my dearest friends, a special little soul, used to get teased,” she says. “I remember one day asking him, ‘When are you going to tell your family you like boys?’ He just looked at me, poor thing. He was shocked, and he started crying…. I didn’t even know what ‘gay’ was. I just instinctively was in tune with sexuality, and how it can differ, and it’s a versatile place.
“I was just one of those kids, like I don’t give a shit. If I ever saw anyone vulnerable get teased, I would just step in and tell that little bully where to go. I wanted, from a young age, to protect people who got teased by other people, and that’s how I became passionate about advocating for human rights. Not just gay rights, but all rights.”
Currently hitting various festivals and Gay Prides internationally, Vassy is especially thrilled to be performing at the Capital Pride Concert on Sunday, June 11.
“The energy at these festivals is awesome,” she says. “People are really there to celebrate, and it’s a day where everyone’s coming together to celebrate the same thing. I feel there is a bond, a very special bond, that happens. It’s that one day where we’re all there for the same reason. There’s just love in the air.”
Vassy is scheduled to perform on the Main Stage of the Capital Pride Concert on Sunday, June 11, around 2:15 p.m. Times are subject to change. For the latest updates, and info on how to purchase VIP or Pit Passes, visit capitalpride.org.
The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating an assault in Logan Circle in which a man allegedly threatened violence against a passerby in what may have been a hate crime.
The incident happened around 10:30 a.m. on September 15 at 14th and R Streets NW. Police say the suspect, identified as 39-year-old Marshall Baxter, jumped in front of the victim -- a neighborhood resident -- and swung his fists, narrowly missing them.
According to an MPD press release, Baxter, who has no fixed address, allegedly shouted a homophobic slur at the victim.
The state of Iowa will pay $85,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a group of LGBTQ teens who were expelled from the Iowa Capitol during a 2020 advocacy trip organized by Iowa Safe Schools, after a dispute over bathroom access.
The lawsuit, filed in 2022, claimed that about 150 students and chaperones were unfairly ejected while visiting the Capitol to meet with legislators.
Nate Monson, then the executive director of Iowa Safe Schools, told The Des Moines Register that state troopers barred a smaller group of students from using bathrooms that matched their gender identity and directed them instead to a gender-neutral restroom elsewhere in the Capitol.
Harvard University has drawn criticism from conservatives after announcing that Tufts professor Kareem Khubchandani -- who performs and occasionally lectures in drag as "LaWhore Vagistan" -- will serve as a visiting associate professor in its Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality department.
The visiting professorship was established through an endowment from members of the Harvard Gender & Sexuality Caucus, the university's LGBTQ alumni group. It was created to bring in scholars focused on issues related to sexual minorities and sexuality.
Khubchandani is scheduled to teach two courses during the 2025-2026 academic year: "Queer Ethnography," in the fall semester, and "RuPaulitics: Drag, Race, and Desire" in the spring semester, focusing on the cultural influence of the show RuPaul's Drag Race.
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