Tom Goss’s new single, “Pride”, celebrates the rainbow of people who make up the LGBTQ community and their stories of hope, perseverance, triumph, and love. “When we think of Pride, we often think of tens of thousands of people marching in a parade, but it’s much more than that,” he says. “It’s the individuals, the love they share, and the moments together that make up the mosaic that is Pride as we know it today. That’s what this song is about.” Produced by Austin Danson, Tom Goss’s “Pride” is available on iTunes, Spotify and all major digital platforms. The music video is on YouTube.
The idea for the song was sparked by a cross-country road trip Tom and his husband took last summer. “We stayed in rural areas, ate sandwiches in our car and kept to ourselves, with one exception,” Tom explains. “We stopped off in Reading, Pennsylvania to visit our friend Ben, who had recently lost his partner Rich.”
Rich and Ben were cornerstones in their local LGBTQ community, working hard to make Reading a loving, welcoming and tight-knit city for all. Upon Rich’s death, the city hosted a memorial service in front of City Hall in his honor. “We had a picnic lunch, talked, cried and visited the cemetery. I got to know more about their love story and was deeply moved,” Tom remembers.
Their story inspired Tom to think about all of the other people who have fought diligently to make being gay something to be celebrated. People like Rich and Ben, living and loving quietly, but heroically, in small cities and towns across the country. The world may never know their names, but that doesn’t make their stories any less important.
Tom issued a post on Facebook, asking LGBTQ couples to share their love stories with him. He was inundated by the most beautiful and moving testimonials from all over the world. One told of Jim and Jim who met in Cheyenne, Wyoming, raised a family, and worked tirelessly to protect the rights of LGBTQ students. Tom thought it was a beautiful counterpoint to Rich and Ben’s story and combined both in his song.
“If it were possible, ‘Pride’ would have been countless verses long, detailing the story of hundreds of thousands of loving LGBTQ people who have helped to create what we call Pride today,” Tom continues.
Representation is important, so for the song’s music video, Tom casted two women (Connie Kurtew and Dalila Ali Rajah) in the roles of Jim and Jim. London Holloway plays the child in their beautiful and vibrant family. Kayden Petersen-Craig plays Rich; and Tom, aged thirty years with the help of make-up artist, Angel, plays the role of Ben.
“I hope ‘Pride’ and its music video encourage people in the community to stop and reflect on how we got to where we are today,” Tom says. “We owe so much to our forefathers and mothers. We cannot begin to imagine the hardships they endured, and that’s by design. They wouldn’t allow it. They wanted a better world for us, so they created it for us.”
“It’s important that we respect and pay homage to those that fought for us and continue the fight for the generations to follow. That is Pride.”
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