Josh Ackley is a political strategist and the frontman of the queerpunk band The Dead Betties. Josh writes for the LGBTQIA+ Cultural and pop blog and magazine OUT about the return of Madonna, whose importance for LGBTQIA+ people was once such that, tongue in cheek, the gay magazine BOYX used to refer to her as "Our Glorious Leader". Josh writes on Madonnas cultural and political significance and notes "When I was 8 years old, my parents made the premiere of the “Like a Prayer” video an event in our house, which in retrospect feels almost unbelievable, not just because of what that video contained but because of what it made possible. Madonna dancing in front of burning crosses, invoking the visual language of the Ku Klux Klan, placing herself inside a narrative of racial violence and false accusation, kissing a Black saint inside a church that felt both sacred and transgressive at the same time, collapsing religion, sexuality, and race into a single frame that refused to resolve neatly into anything polite or easily digestible, all of it landing in our living room, all of it landing on me before I fully understood what I was seeing, but understanding enough to feel that something important was happening."

Why not read Josh's full analysis of Madonna's significance? Visit the essay online at https://www.out.com/gay-music/madonna-confessions-dance-floor-return