When she was one of Country music's brightest stars in the mid-90s, Chely Wright was winning awards, had number one hits like Single White Female and was dating fellow singer Brad Paisley.

She now finds herself being quietly rejected by Nashville ever since coming out as a lesbian in 2010.

'As my friend said, 'I don't think (the rejection is) going to be fire and brimstone, I think they're going to freeze her out,'' the singer said this week on CBS This Morning.

'It's not my belief that I should be performing on every awards show. ... Now it's the new Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum, that's a natural part of entertaining,' she said. '(But) there's an institutionalized friendship within country music, once you're in, once you're one of us, you're always invited to certain things to present or be a part of it or chair a committee for the Country Music Hall of Fame.'

That hasn't happened since she went public about her sexuality in her memoir Like Me and made high-profile appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and other programs to promote it.

'It's...a rejection mostly because I would like to hear a country music artist, the big ones, not just say, 'Well, I like Chely. I like her even though she's gay,'' she said. 'I need a country artist who is a big deal, like Jay-Z in his community; He came forward and said, 'I believe in equality for all.' I'm struggling because I have not heard that from the big stars in country music.'

But Wright, who married LGBT rights advocate Lauren Blitzer last August, is using her voice these days more as an activist for Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN, an advocacy group that is trying to end bullying in public schools.

'I'm trying to work on those things and to use my voice to make sure that everyone out there in America knows, you do love a gay person,' she said. 'It may not be me, but I promise you, you have a neighbor, a coworker, a niece, and be mindful of the negative things you say about gays and lesbians because someone is listening.'

Wish Me Away, a documentary about Wright's coming out journey, opens in limited release on Friday in New York then in Los Angeles on June 15.