What do The Gossip, Grizzly Bear and now Vampire Weekend have in common? Well, yeah, since the latter’s keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij came out you would be correct if you said “they are all bands with out, gay members.” But the real answer I was looking for is that they are some of the highest-profile and most-loved indie bands playing in America today. And unless I am sorely out of the loop,hey have hardly been greeted with a loss of fans, dropped sponsorships or boycotts by the religious right. The earth beneath your local record store did not open and swallow passerbies with an assortment of writhing, pink tentacles. In fact, it would be pretty safe to say that no one really fucking cares.

Back in February we showed you a video of gay singers Tom Goss and Matt Alber playing their anti-DADT anthem, “This Is Who We Are,” on my roof. The next day they performed the song again on the national mall and brought some discharged soldiers down with them to tell their stories. The song is getting a wide release and will helpfully continue to raise support for ending this already-reviled policy.

My name, as in indicated on my birth certificate, is Zachary David Rosen. I usually introduce myself as Zack. Some of my closest friends and family will use the long version of my name on occasion. I spent a brief stint in college as “Z-Roz” and occasionally “ZDR.” But I guess sometime after I moved to DC it got changed, because now I frequently get addressed as “she,” “her,” “Mary, ” “Girl” or a million other feminine monikers that I don’t really understand.

Dublin’s anachronistically styled rockabilly babe, Imelda May, kicks ass for a couple reasons. Most of them have to do with her snappy songs and rockabilly revival style, but she also reminds me a lot of Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks and anyone who thinks Audrey wasn’t the coolest girl on that show should just ride off with James Hurley and never be seen again.

But anyway — Imelda was nice enough to give us a couple minutes of her time when she was in DC yesterday opening for Jamie Cullum at the 930 Club. I haven’t watched The Oscars in years, but even if I did I would’ve gladly skipped for this one.

Australian artist Sia Furler was fortunate enough to have two grand unveilings to American audiences. Though she has been releasing music for years, both as herself and as a vocalist for Zero 7, she made a colossal splash in the population at large when her track “Breathe Me” was used to underscore the depression-porn final minutes of HBO’s Six Feet Under. To queer music fans, though, she became an eternal icon/object of jealousy two years ago when news spread that Sia was dating former Le Tiger, and current MEN, member JD Samson.

Sia’s next album “We Are Born” is slated for release this spring and she will be touring the world in support of it. (DC, keep May 4 open.) In the interview below, Sia is her usual unspoken self on the subjects of the music industry, gay rights and the things that she and JD are going to do with David Byrne’s “slippery people.”

But I know that just because I can do it doesn’t mean that I’ll do it like everyone else. As much as I chuckle at the prospect of my best male friends traipsing around in purple taffeta groomsmen dresses, I know that my relationship still lies largely outside the conventions of society and so my eventual wedding should do the same. I don’t (necessarily) mean that I will coast down the aisle naked on a KY slip n slide, but I will make damn sure that my wedding both has my own tastes reflected and will not bore my guests to the point of hanging themselves in the bathroom with a lacy “Zack’s getting married” gift bag.

Yesterday, queer lady musician extraordinaire Erin McKeown was nice enough to give me a couple of minutes of her time while she was in DC, at the 930 Club, opening for Ani DiFranco. Erin talks about coming out professionally, how it has(n’t) influenced her sound and the way that people live in the shadow of Ani DiFranco.

Like a combination of Abba and Bon Iver, Sweden’s Fredrik mixes harmonized hooks and bedroom lullabies to create something that I’d listen to over morning coffee and still be singing in my evening shower. The hooks and odd instrumentation of their self-titled debut, from which “Black Fur” comes, lead naturally to the more atmospheric sound of their new release Trilogi. (Source of “Omberg.”) The band was nice enough to let me film them doing these two songs at DC’s Goldleaf Studio and to provide the projector that gives the whole thing its Kermit-on-mushrooms hues.

Last Thursday, for insurance purposes, my boyfriend and I became registered domestic partners in the District of Columbia. We met with some attorneys, signed some forms, woke up early and went down to the Department of Health and filed said forms. He went off to work and I went home. It was the least romantic thing I’ve ever done, and that includes having explosive diarrhea at Wrigley Field. We had always figured that an official declaration of our love was in the works, but (like Tina and Ike) love had nothing to do with it.

Philly band Pattern is Movement describe their sound in the above video as “Julie Andrews in a steel mill” which is only one clue that they’re more clued in to their gay fan base than your average indies. In the above video — which I freely admit has little to do with music— the band fills us in on their life as straight bears, and several other things that one doesn’t usually hear bands talk about. These guys are great, and I hope you all get a chance to check ‘em out.