There once was a time when Brandon Stansell was in love, but the man he loved wasn’t in love with him quite yet.

"We were in two very different places when we first met,” recalls Stansell, 36, in an interview with PEOPLE as his two dogs bark in the background. “He was just coming out of something and not really looking for anything, and I was not. I met him and just went crazy for him.”

From there, the country artist found himself having to learn to be patient, especially when it came to this love story in the making. But six months after meeting the man that rocked his world, Stansell found himself at a crossroads.

June 30th may be the last day of Pride Month, but reasons to support the LGBT community don't end with June. While artists including T.J. Osborne, Brandy Clark and Lily Rose are out and proud, here are 10 emerging LGBTQ acts to add to your playlist.

Meet Chris Housman, Brooke Eden, The Kentucky Gentleman, Angie K, Cody Belew, Adeem the Artist, Katie Pruitt, Fancy Hagood, Jaime Wyatt and Brandon Stansell.

“Hurt people hurt people,” Brandon Stansell sang from the Analog at Hutton stage in Nashville recently, closing a national tour in support of his latest album, This Must Be the Place.

True as it is that hurt people hurt people, forging further paths of destruction to match their own, we can be thankful that sometimes hurt people also heal people… and ourselves, when we find community, share our stories, and lift each other up. This was the energy on full display as Stansell returned to his home state, which, to be clear, is a place that hasn’t always been kind to queer people… or to Stansell, himself.

Growing up gay in the Georgetown area in Hamilton County, life wasn't always easy, Brandon Stansell said, but lots of therapy and a small but supportive community helped him grow into the man he is today. And he couldn't be happier.

Proving that paradise is less a location and more of a state of mind, music star Brandon Stansell and drag performer extraordinaire Ginger Minj pack their bags and head into the 'sunshine' in their new video.

I don't have the words to say how good it feels to be back on stage. We just kicked off the tour this week in LA and it wasn't until I was up in front of the crowd I realized just how badly I'd missed it. I released my Hurt People EP in 2020 and my new album This Must Be The Place in June of this year - which means it's been a two year wait to be able to perform anything from either. But seeing people singing along at the shows has made it all worth it.

Honest, personal and damn good fun from an artist on the rise.

Brandon Stansell is enjoying the ride.

The country star is back with his newest single "Wild Ride" off his forthcoming album This Must Be the Place on Thursday and PEOPLE is getting an exclusive first listen. To Stansell, the song is about enjoying the process before getting to your end destination.

“When I took a breath and stood still, it all began to make sense,” he says. “I had been trying to be enough of this or enough of that for the world. It was exhausting, and it actually took me further away from who I truly am. Feeling the confidence to stop trying please everyone but myself changed everything. I found clarity.”

Brandon Stansell isn't judging in his new song, just worrying about a loved one's happiness. "Did You Settle Down Too Soon?" is premiering exclusively on The Boot; press play below to listen.

"One of the greatest freedoms I found after coming out was that there were no expectations for me — I shattered those when I decided to be honest about who I was," Stansell, who is gay, tells The Boot. "When nothing is expected of you, the world seems to open up a bit, and all the really matters is not what others want for you, but what you want for yourself.