The Real Gertrude "Ma" Rainey Was a Trailblazing Bisexual Blues Singer

Dec. 20 2020, Updated 4:03 p.m. ET

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, launched on Netflix on Dec. 18, is already poised for Oscar nominations. With a phenomenal cast and costumes, and an electrifying rating, Ma Rainey is a stunning biopic that follows the real-life "Mother of Blues," Gertrude "Ma" Rainey. Ma, who's portrayed by way of the infinitely talented Viola Davis, is proven to be a trailblazer in every sense of the phrase. As a Black girl in the '20s, she captivated her target audience with her tough voice, and demanded the popularity she deserved — and she or he were given it. 

Aside from her talent, air of mystery, and backbone, Ma Rainey is also depicted as queer in the film, with a focal point on her female friend, Dussie Mae (Taylour Paige). But was Ma in reality queer? And was Dussie in keeping with a real particular person?

Was Ma Rainey gay?

It's believed that Ma Rainey was bisexual, because of suggestive lyrics in a few of her songs, and the undeniable fact that she were given busted through the police for webhosting a queer orgy. Although Dussie Mae is a fictional persona, Ma was romantically linked to Bessie Smith, another queer jazz performer who was her protegé.

However, Ma did marry twice — to men. Her first husband was Will Rainey, to whom she was married for 10 years ahead of they separated. She married again to a younger guy, but there are very few details about his identify or who he was.

One of Ma's songs, "Prove It on Me Blues" (recorded in 1928) is assumed to be a proclamation of her sexual identity:

In regard to what has been described as an "orgy," it was written that she hosted a party in 1925 with all-female guests who had been discovered "indecent" — and Ma needed to in truth get bailed out of jail the subsequent morning for it. In Chris Albertson's biography of Bessie Smith, he wrote, "[Rainey] and a group of young ladies had been drinking and were making so much noise that a neighbor summoned the police," who got here "just as the impromptu party got intimate." 

Viola is encouraged to be enjoying one of these dynamic character, telling BBC, "We're so used to seeing Black characters defined by white people. And when they're defined by white people, their voice gets taken away, their sexuality gets taken away. They are defined in the image of — take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt — but I'm gonna say it, they are defined in the mindset of the oppressor." 

She added, specifically about Ma's freedom to express herself and her sexuality, pronouncing, "When you find a woman like Ma Rainey — she's big, she is bisexual, she's dark skinned. She's all those things ... Usually a character like that is just funny, she's just big. Black and funny. That's it. That, or she's uber maternal."

Taylour Paige, who played Ma's girlfriend, talked to Women's Health on how she was inspired to take in this position of an individual who didn't exist.

"There was no person that I picked to really [based her character off of]. I just kind of would pray to my ancestors ... I asked for Ma and August Wilson's blessing, and I just asked for all the powers of the universe to come into me to lend myself to the story — because it's not about me. I play [Ma's] lover, and I'm on this adventure with everybody else."

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