When singer Ari Gold was a child, he knew two things about himself: One, he wanted to be an entertainer, and, two, he was different from other boys his age. Staging musicals with her Annie doll in her dollhouse highlighted Gold’s burgeoning sexuality and set him apart from his childhood chums, while nurturing his desire to belt out tunes.

That desire led to Gold being discovered at the age of five, while singing at his brother’s bat-mitzvah, and his young world took a turn for the better.

From that point, Gold nabbed singing gigs as a pre-eminent child vocalist on such projects as “Cabbage Patch Kids” and “Jem and the Holograms,” (which must have been akin to a gay childhood fantasy come true!) before shifting into recording his first demo at age 12 and then writing his own material as a teenager.

The in-between years found Gold honing his craft, balancing the demands of school with that ever-present specter of his sexuality looming over him. He found song writing a way to truly express himself.

“I started writing songs when I was 14 and I always wrote very autobiographically,” Gold explained. “I came out when I was 18. I came out to some people when I was 16, but my family when I was 18, and just letting everybody know when I was 18.

“So, I always write about what’s going on in my life, I always write autobiographically, so now I have to write about my life as a gay man. It just seemed like it made sense to me. I don’t think I was thinking that I was doing something that no one had done before. I just had to continue to write from my heart.”

The Gay and Lesbian Times chatted with Gold about his career trajectory, including his latest musical effort, Transport Systems, which has been described as a concept CD about “movement, progression, transportation and transformation.” The new CD truly reflects who Gold is as a performer, and produces some great dance tracks, such as his latest single, “Where The Music Takes You.” (The video for the song was directed by hometown boy and sometimes GLT cover illustrator, Joe Phillips.)

“I feel like I really went there lyrically with this album, no holds barred, and just wanted to be really clear about what I’m taking about, because it’s the first album I’ve been able to conceive of from beginning to end.” Gold said. “I thought it was apropos for what I was going through on a personal level. I really felt like I was trying to move forward in my life, and stop holding on to the old pain and issues, to let that go and move forward.

“I felt that would really resonate with what gay people are going through as a whole. Obviously, we’re all different, but there is something that connects us. I think we have all this greater visibility, and we can be seen on TV, we can be seen in film – but how do we really move forward to the next level? How can we be seen in the world as the real, multi-faceted, complex and sexual creatures that we are, and not just two-dimensional?”

Gold does his part by never being one to shy away from his sexuality, both personally, professionally or lyrically, which has made him somewhat of a pioneer in the music industry. His sexuality wasn’t speculated on, nor did he have his closet door kicked in because he was caught foot tapping in a public restroom. Gold has always been up front about his sexuality.

“Most of the time I feel a sense of gratitude,” he said. “I feel like, ‘Wow, I am so lucky I get to actually make this difference.’ Because it feels great to make a difference and to do something that hasn’t been done before, or to ‘blaze a trail’ as they say.

“There’s definitely a lot of challenges that come along with that, there’s a certain cross you bear sometimes. At times you get the brunt of a lot of negativity, because it is something that’s new and people are scared of things that are new; you are sort of like the guinea pig. But it’s a very cool thing and sometimes I’m like, ‘Is this really me? Is this really my life? Am I really doing this?’”

On Transport Systems, Gold manages to weave in prevalent issues facing the GLBT community, such as meth addiction and gender identity, which can be difficult to do within the context of a dance song, but he still finds it a better way to get a message out.

“I love the challenge of it,” he answered. “You know Shakespeare enjoyed the sonnet, because it was such a structured form, and yet he had to say something that was deep and meaningful in that structured form. So I think it’s a similar thing, and I’m not saying I’m Shakespeare, but just that pop music is very structured. And, so it’s a great challenge to say something that actually means something, or say something that hasn’t been said before, or at least quite in that way.”

Gold uses his notoriety as an openly gay performer to lend his celebrity to causes such as The Human Rights Campaign, an area that interested him even before he became a recording artist.

“I always felt very passionately about human rights issues, even before I came out,” Gold said. “Me and my friends in high school, even though we went to Yeshiva and there weren’t that many of us, there was still a small group of us that felt very passionately about racism and sexism, and even homophobia.”

And Gold is proud that his conviction from his formative years has carried over, and that he can be a champion for human rights today.

“However you can give back,” he said. “I consider, in many ways, my music to be a form of activism. But, there’s no substitution for the real work that these organizations do. So, if I can help in any way that I can, I try to.”

Even though Gold likes to stay grounded and living in the moment he does have his career GPS set for beyond the horizon line.

“I hope in the future, I continue to keep making music and to grow as an artist,” he said, before adding with a laugh. “And Radio City would be nice.”