LGBTQ musician goes viral after playing protest song at ‘Hetero Awesome Fest’ in Idaho

Musician Daniel Hamrick went viral for his performance at the "Hetero Awesome Fest" in Idaho, where he played a song about a transgender boy.

An LGBTQ musician managed to get a spot on stage at the “Hetero Awesome Fest” in Boise, Idaho, last weekend, where he put on what he called his “battle jacket” — which has an upside down American flag on one arm and a rainbow Pride heart on the other — and his tan beret from serving four years as an Army ranger and then played a song in protest about a transgender boy.

His performance, which was live-streamed both by the festival and by a local journalist, went viral across social media this week.

Daniel Hamrick, a Boise-based musician who performs at Renaissance festivals and with his band, Buzzbomb 7 Eleven, said his goal was to reach children and young adults in religious or conservative families who have to hide who they are for their own safety.

“I believe that anyone who’s out has a responsibility to be gay and loud for the people who have to be gay and quiet,” he said in an interview with NBC News.

Mark Fitzpatrick, owner of the Old State Saloon, a bar and restaurant in a suburb of Boise, announced the event in April as an alternative and a response to LGBTQ Pride Month, which is recognized annually in June. He said at the time that the event would be a celebration of “traditional family values” and was inspired by the restaurant’s inaugural “Heterosexual Awesomeness Month” held last year.