Robert Hammerstrom News Today

Lavender Countrys 1973 debut is considered the first openly gay country album. After the record was reissued in 2014, fans and fellow artists came to embrace Haggerty, who died Monday, as a pioneer.

Lavender Country's 1973 debut is considered the first openly gay country album. After the record was reissued in 2014, fans and fellow artists came to embrace Haggerty, who died Monday, as a pioneer.

Patrick Haggertys death comes a month after he suffered from stroke last September.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In 1973, amid the growing gay rights movement, a band called Lavender Country recorded a country music album that unabashedly explored LGBTQ themes, becoming a landmark that would nonetheless disappear for decades.

In 1973, amid the growing gay rights movement, a band called Lavender Country recorded a country music album that unabashedly explored LGBTQ themes, becoming a landmark that would nonetheless disappear for decades.

In 1973, amid the growing gay rights movement, a band called Lavender Country recorded a country music album that unabashedly explored LGBTQ themes, becoming a landmark that would nonetheless disappear for decades.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — In 1973, amid the growing gay rights movement, a band called Lavender Country recorded a country music album that unabashedly explored LGBTQ themes, becoming a landmark

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — In 1973, amid the growing gay rights movement, a band called Lavender Country recorded a country music album that unabashedly explored LGBTQ themes, becoming a landmark

Lavender Country's Patrick Haggerty on the group's new album 'Blackberry Rose' and his devotion to radical activism.

In 1973, amid the growing gay rights movement, a band called Lavender Country recorded a country music album that unabashedly explored LGBTQ themes