Repeat off

1

Repeat one

all

Repeat all

Legendary ally Dolly Parton is finally winning an Oscar for this surprising reason
June 18 2025, 08:15

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is finally giving an Oscar award to legendary country music star and LGBTQ+ ally Dolly Parton. She has been nominated twice before for Best Original Song, but her upcoming will honor her humanitarian work.

On Tuesday, the Academy said it would give Parton the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award this coming November, recognizing her decades-long humanitarian efforts. Honorary Oscars will also be presented to scientologist actor Tom Cruise, choreographer Debbie Allen, and production designer Wynn Thomas, Variety reported

Related

Dolly Parton gives surprise gift to Texas queen who fought state’s drag ban
“I honestly can’t believe it’s even real,” the drag performer said.

Part of Dolly Parton’s humanitarian work has involved supporting charities and various causes. In 1988, she established the Dollywood Foundation, which has since been re-named the Imagination Library. The charity donates library books to children around the world.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Throughout her career, she has donated money to scholarships, “big buddy” programs, and other educational initiatives to increase graduation rates in her hometown of Sevier County, Tennessee. In 2002, the Dollywood Foundation began giving the Chasing Rainbows Award to a “teacher who has overcome obstacles in his/her life and is making a difference in the lives of children.”

In 1991, she established the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary, a 30,000-square-foot aviary for the country’s largest collection of “non-releasable” bald eagles. She has also helped raise millions for wildfire victims, a hospital in her hometown, and the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. She has also donated her time to causes like reading books to children during the COVID-19 pandemic so they’d be less scared.

Parton has been nominated for two Oscars in the past

Parton received an Academy Award “Best Original Song” nomination for the theme song to the satirical 1980 workplace comedy 9 to 5, in which she co-starred with Jane Fonda and lesbian comedienne Lily Tomlin. She also performed “The Day I Fall in Love,” a song from the 1993 children’s canine comedy Beethoven’s 2nd; the song’s writers received a Best Original Song Academy Award nomination.

Parton also received another Best Original Song Academy Award nomination for “Travelin’ Thru”, a song she wrote specifically for the 2005 transgender family road trip comedy Transamerica. She said she received death threats for the song’s pro-trans message.

Parton was also a co-owner of Sandollar Productions, whose 1989 documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

A quick history of Dolly Parton’s LGBTQ+ activism

Parton has spoken against transphobic bathroom bills, telling CNN Money, “I think everybody should be treated with respect,” and adding, “If I have to pee, I’m gonna pee, wherever it’s got to be.”

Dolly Parton has long supported same-sex marriage equality. She has joked, “Why can’t they get married? They should suffer like the rest of us do,” but she thoughtfully added, “I think love is love, and we have no control over that… I think people should be allowed to [marry].”

In 2011, when a woman at a Dollywood amusement park was told to turn her pro-marriage equality T-shirt inside-out, Dolly Parton personally apologized, saying, “Everyone knows of my personal support of the gay and lesbian community.” She also promised that such a thing would never happen again.

She has spoken against anti-LGBTQ+ Christians, saying, “If people want to pass judgment, they’re already sinning… I try to love everybody.” However, Parton isn’t perfect. She angered some fans by saying that some people may identify as nonbinary or pansexual because it’s “fashionable” or “for effect.”

However, she has embraced her gay fans. In a 2016 New York Times interview, Parton said, “I have a huge gay following, and I’m proud of them. Sometimes some of them look more like me than I do.” She may have referenced that she once lost a Dolly Parton look-alike drag contest. “I didn’t win,” she told Good Morning America in 2009. “I didn’t even come in close.”

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.


Comments (0)