Ben Mark’s of Collectors Weekly says:
Our own Lisa Hix has written a terrific article about how Bessie Smith and other blues divas of the 1920s led not-entirely secret double lives as lesbians, occasionally taunting their audiences with revealing lyrics. For example, in the 1928 song “Prove It on Me,” Gertrude “Ma” Rainey—known as “The Mother of Blues”—sang, “It’s true I wear a collar and a tie, … Talk to the gals just like any old man.” While such lyrics might not seem like a big deal to us today, back then, pursuing same-sex relations could get you thrown in jail.
Singing the Lesbian Blues in 1920s Harlem