“I think the Scissor Sisters' lack of mainstream success here (in the U.S.) says a lot about America,” Boy George claims. “You hear them everywhere in New York—every bar, every cafe, all the trendy places. But it hasn't crossed over into the mainstream and it's because they're openly gay.”

When the Scissor Sisters’ self-titled debut album was released in February 2005 in the U.K., it quickly rocketed to the top of the U.K. charts and was the number-one album there in 2004. The Scissor Sisters were the only group to have four singles in the U.K.’s Top 20 last year, and they swept the Brit Awards (the U.K.’s Grammy equivalent) in February, winning the awards for best international group, album, and breakthrough act.

But after the band’s album was released in the U.S. last August, it failed to sell more than one-tenth of the number sold in the U.K., and six months later failed to climb higher than #102 on the American charts despite widespread critical acclaim. Boy George’s criticism of a homophobic American music-buying public is ironic given the fact that much of his success in the early 1980s came out of his cross-dressing, extremely queer-friendly performance as part of Culture Club, which turned out such memorable hits as “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” and “Karma Chameleon.”

Scissor Sisters’ singer Jake Shears insisted to the Washington Post in February, "The music transcends gay…I really hope it does because I'm not interested in just singing about gay things. I like to have that mask on it where it can be interpreted in multiple ways. I'm not interested in alienating anybody, and we're very conscious about that when we're writing lyrics.”

While the songs on the album range over a variety of subjects that are certainly not only “gay,” they do include a song about taking your mother out on the town (to a gay bar, although that’s not overt) and an ode to transvestite prostitutes. But just like the band’s name—which is slang for a particular sex act between women—listeners aren’t necessarily going to get the subtext unless they’re in the know.

What’s undeniable, though, is the fact that three of the four band members are openly gay, and a fourth describes herself as a drag queen trapped in a woman’s body.

Combined with lead singer Jake Shears’ raunchy stage act (“I'm very, very loose, to put it mildly, and I'm not even conscious of that!” he told the Washington Post), it’s not surprising that the band would strike fear into the heart of homophobes everywhere.

Originally called Dead Lesbian and the Fibrillating Scissor Sisters, the act was formed in 1999 when Jake Shears, then a 19-year-old college student majoring in writing, met Brooklyn-based instrumentalist Babydaddy. Shears met performance artist Ana Matronic (the group’s sole female member) at a Halloween party; Matronic earned her performance chops in the San Francisco drag scene, and was hosting a cabaret show in New York when she first began joining the Scissor Sisters on stage.

With the addition of guitarist Del Marquis and drummer Paddy Boom (the only straight man), the band began to perform in Brooklyn during the brief height of the electroclash scene, but soon developed a more pop/rock sound.

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