Gay icon
Encyclopedia
A gay icon is a public figure
(historical or current) who is embraced by many within :lesbian, :gay, :bisexual and :transgender (LGBT
) communities. Dykon, a portmanteau of the words "dyke" and "icon", has recently entered common lexicon to describe figures particularly iconic to lesbians.
Qualities of a gay icon often include glamour
, flamboyance, strength through adversity, and androgyny
in presentation. Such icons may be of any sexuality
or gender
; they may also be closeted
or open with their sexual orientation
and gender identity
. Although most gay icons have given their support to LGBT social movements
, some have expressed opposition
– advocating against a perceived "homosexual agenda
".
Historical icons are typically elevated to such status because their sexual orientation remains a topic of great debate among historians. Modern gay icons, who are predominantly female entertainers, commonly garner a large following within LGBT communities over the course of their careers. The majority of gay icons fall into one of two categories: the tragic, sometimes martyred figure or the prominent pop culture idol
.
chose to use that name for the martyred character Sebastian in his play, Suddenly, Last Summer
. The name was also used by Oscar Wilde
– as Sebastian Melmoth – when in exile after his release from prison. Wilde, an Irish writer and poet, was about as "out of the closet
" as was possible for the late nineteenth century, and is himself considered to be a gay icon.
Marie Antoinette
was an early lesbian icon. Rumors about her relationships with women circulated in pornographic detail by anti-royalist pamphlets before the French Revolution
. In Victorian England
, biographers who idealized the Ancien Régime made a point of denying the rumours, but at the same time romanticised Marie Antoinette's "sisterly" friendship with the Princesse de Lamballe as – in the words of an 1858 biography – one of the "rare and great loves that Providence unites in death." By the end of the nineteenth century she was a cult icon of "sapphism"; her execution, seen as tragic martyrdom, may have added to her appeal. Allusions to her appearance in early twentieth century lesbian literature
– most notably Radclyffe Hall
's The Well of Loneliness
– where the gay playwright Jonathan Brockett describes Marie Antoinette and de Lamballe as "poor souls... sick to death of the subterfuge and pretenses." She had crossover appeal as a gay icon as well, at least for Jean Genet
, who was fascinated by her story. He included a reenactment of her execution in his 1947 play The Maids
.
Modern gay icons in entertainment include both film stars and musicians, most of whom have strong, distinctive personalities, and many of whom died young or under tragic circumstances. The glamorous Greek-American opera singer Maria Callas
– who reached her peak in the 1950s – became a gay icon, for example, because the uniquely compelling qualities of her stage performances were allied to a tempestuous private life, a sequence of unhappy love affairs, and a lonely, premature death in Paris after her voice had deserted her.
Lesbian icons are most often powerful women who are, or are rumored to be, lesbian or bisexual. However, a few male entertainers have also had iconic status for lesbians. James Dean
was an early lesbian icon who, along with Marlon Brando
, influenced the butch
look and self-image in the 1950s and after. One critic has argued for Johnny Cash
as a minor lesbian icon, attributing his appeal to "lesbian identification with troubled and suffering masculinity." Science fiction author Forrest J Ackerman
was dubbed an "honorary lesbian" for his help during the early days of the Daughters of Bilitis
. He also wrote lesbian-themed fiction under the pseudonym Laurajean Ermayne.
Gay icons may be homosexual or heterosexual, closeted or out, and male or female. The women most commonly portrayed by drag queen
s are usually gay icons. The definition of what it means to be a "gay icon" has come under criticism in recent years for a lack of substance, as Paul Flynn of The Guardian
comments "the concept of gay icon is a cheap ticket...[and] the idea of gay iconography itself is currently replaceable with the idea of popularity and the ability to carry a strong, identifiable, signature look". Author Michael Thomas Ford
depicts a similar attitude in his work of fiction, Last Summer.
Although the term "gay icon" is most commonly seen in the United States, the concept is to be found in other cultures, as well. Dalida
, the Egyptian singer of Italian origin, had a career-long gay following that extended out of Paris and well into the Middle East. In the years since her death, her iconic status has not diminished. Likewise, Bollywood
actor Abhishek Bachchan
was recently declared to be a gay icon in a national poll in India. Though homosexuality still carries a stigma in India, he was quoted as saying that "Appreciation and love from any quarter is welcome," and that, though he is straight himself, he was comfortable with having a large fan base among gay men. In the Netherlands
, Willeke Alberti
is widely embraced as a gay icon, due to a combination of her song repertoire, her durability, and her performances in support of manifold gay causes. Spanish actress Carmen Maura
, Italian singer Mina, Scottish pop singer Jimmy Somerville
, German singer-songwriter Marianne Rosenberg
and English singer Dusty Springfield
are also considered to be gay icons.
Latin American figures have also gained reputations as gay icons. Alaska y Dinarama
is one example, with their single "¿A quién le importa?
" (later covered in 2002 by Thalía
) which was a hit for the 1980s Spanish band, becoming a gay anthem
for the Spanish language-speaking LGBT community. Gloria Trevi
is considered a gay icon especially after her release of "Todos Me Miran" ("They all watch me") featuring a rejected gay man turned drag queen, but had been popular with the gay and lesbian community in Mexico since the beginnings of her career for being a controversial and powerful singer. Paulina Rubio
, Mexican singer and actress, has been a gay icon for Latin America after supporting gay marriage and publicly stating she wants to have sex with fellow gay icon Madonna
.
reportedly had a large gay following. Though the phrase "friend of Dorothy
" was made popular in later years by Judy Garland
's role in the The Wizard Of Oz
, some speculate it originated with Parker.
Actress Bette Davis
' performance in Dark Victory
(1939), was dubbed by Queer theorist
Eve Sedgwick as "the epistemology of the closet". Davis' portrayal of the melodramatic Judith Traherne made her talent for playing someone with a secret revered and her "camp-worthy" dialog reflexive of the "flamboyant gay queen of the dramatic arts". Ed Sikov, author of Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis, comments 20th century gay men developed their own subculture following Davis' example.
In Marcella Althaus-Reid
's Liberation Theology and Sexuality, Marlene Dietrich
, who is considered to be the first German-born actress to receive critical acclaim in Hollywood, is a model of liberation and subversion, as well as beauty, perfection and sensuality. In Rio de Janeiro
, Althaus-Reid discovered a statue of Dietrich dressed as Nossa Senhora de Aparecida in a gay bar in Copacabana beach. The image of Dietrich as the black Virgin Mary
represents her overcoming duality. According to Althaus-Reid, it is a figure which sanctifies Dietrich while simultaneously liberating Mary. Other icons from this time period include Cary Grant
, who endured speculation over his alleged relationships with men, Carmen Miranda
, Lena Horne
, Josephine Baker
, Ethel Merman
, Greta Garbo
, Katharine Hepburn
, Mae West
, Ginger Rogers
, Tallulah Bankhead
, Edith Piaf
, and Noel Coward
.
An archetypal gay icon is Judy Garland
. Michael Bronski, author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility, describes Garland as "the quintessential pre-Stonewall gay icon". So revered is she as a gay icon that her best known film role, that of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz
, became used as code among homosexuals in the 1950s. The expression, "Is he a friend of Dorothy?" was slang for, "Is he gay?" The character Dorothy met an odd group of friends during her journey through Oz—the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow—and so referring to an individual as a "friend of Dorothy" meant that they were "unusual or odd" and thus "queer". Though Garland has been noted for her embodiment of camp
in her acting roles, Bronski argues that she was the "antithesis of camp" and "made a legend of her pain and oppression." As Bronski observes, the bleak setting of 1950s Hollywood had replaced the "sauciness of the 30s and the independence of the 40s". Garland, as well as Lana Turner
and Susan Hayward
, epitomized the idea that "suffering was the price of glamor...[and] the women stars of the 50s reflected the condition of many gay men: they suffered, beautifully".
Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli
would later follow in her mother's footsteps as a gay icon, as would fellow musical artist Barbra Streisand
. Joan Crawford
has been described as the "Ultimate Gay Icon — the martyr who suffered for her art, and therefore enabled herself to bond with this all-important faction of her fan-base". In Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography, author Lawrence J. Quirk explains that Crawford appealed to gay men because they sympathized with her struggle for success; in both the entertainment industry and in her personal life. Though Crawford had been a notable film star during the 1930s and 1940s, according to David Bret, author of Joan Crawford: Hollywood Martyr, it was not until her 1953 film Torch Song
that she was seen as a "complete gay icon, primarily because it was shot in color". Bret further explains that seeing the actress' red hair, dark eyes and 'Victory Red' lips linked her to "gaydom's other sirens: Dietrich, Garland, Bankhead, Piaf, and new recruits Marilyn Monroe and Maria Callas".
Lucille Ball
is also a prominent icon from this period. In Lee Tannen's book I Loved Lucy: My Friendship with Lucille Ball, the author describes his experience when he witnessed Lucille Ball being labeled a gay icon for the first time by a mutual friend. Ball was told of the adoration she received from gay men, as a bar in West Hollywood was known for routinely playing episodes of her television series I Love Lucy
every weekend. In an interview with Out
magazine, Tannen expressed his opinion that Ball's television character Lucy Ricardo was the true gay icon, as "Lucy Ricardo was the underdog who was always trying to prove herself, and I think many gay men can identify with that." Other icons from this time include Liberace
, Julie Andrews
, Shirley Bassey
, Debbie Reynolds
, Barbara Cook
, Rock Hudson
, Fabulous Moolah, Doris Day
, Eartha Kitt
, Clara Ward
, Marilyn Monroe
, Gloria Swanson
, Elizabeth Taylor
and Audrey Hepburn
.
, whose dance songs became anthems for the clubbing gay community
. Her number one single "Love to Love You Baby
"—regarded as an "absolute disco epic"—not only became a gay anthem because of its "unabridged sexuality", it brought European-oriented disco to the United States and influenced the course the recording industry would take in the following years. However, Summer became immersed in controversy when, after becoming a born-again Christian during the 1980s at the dawn of the AIDS crisis, she was reported as saying homophobic remarks, including that "AIDS was God's punishment to homosexuals".
During the mid-1980s, many statements denying these circulating rumors were issued by Summer's publicist and she was supported by some within the recording industry and the gay community. Summer, however, never issued any statements herself until several years later. In a 1989 interview with The Advocate, Summer stated a number of people she has worked with throughout her career are openly gay and she has never judged them for it; "I don't look at people by their sexual orientation. I don't judge people because they are gay or straight. My love for people is based on my compassion as a person". Fellow disco singer Gloria Gaynor
was embraced by the gay community because of her single "I Will Survive
", which served as an anthem for both feminists and the Gay Rights movement.
Singer Cass Elliot
became known as a gay icon, both during her solo career and as a member of The Mamas and the Papas. Both through her camp
fashion and lyrics praising individuality (such as "Make Your Own Kind of Music" and "Different") and free love, her musical impact became known. Her music was later featured in the 1996 acclaimed gay film Beautiful Thing
, adapted from the play of the same name.
Singer/actress Bette Midler
also became recognized as a gay icon in the 1970s. After performing on Broadway, Bette began performing at the Continental Baths
, a gay bathhouse
in the city, where she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow
, who produced her first major album, The Divine Miss M
, in 1973.
Other artists particularly embraced by the gay community during the '70s and '80s included Diana Ross
, Grace Jones
, Charo
, Elaine Paige
, and Dolly Parton
. Two gay Britons, writer Quentin Crisp
and singer Freddie Mercury
of Queen
also became popular icons, as well as a bisexual Briton, David Bowie
. Elton John
also became a gay icon in his own right during this decade, a status strengthened during the 1990s (see below).
Disco and icon pop music singer and actress Goddess of Pop, Cher became notable in the gay community not only for her music, but for her portrayal of a lesbian in Silkwood
, for which she received an Academy Award nomination. In later years, her daughter Chastity Bono
came out as gay at the age of seventeen, much to her mother's initial feelings of "guilt, fear and pain". When Cher was able to accept her daughter's sexual orientation, she realized that Chastity, as well as other LGBT people "didn't have the same rights as everyone else, [and she] thought that was unfair". Cher emerged not only as an icon among LGBT people, but also a role model for straight parents who have gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender children. She became the keynote speaker for the 1997 national Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) convention. Cher's longevity in the music industry has often been credited to her gay following. William J. Mann, author of Gay Pride: A Celebration of All Things Gay and Lesbian, comments "[w]e'll be dancing to a ninety-year old Cher when we're sixty. Just watch".
Continuing into the 1980s, pop music singer Madonna—dubbed "Queen of Pop" and "Queen of Dance" by the media, and later the "World's Most Successful Female Recording Artist" by Guinness World Records
—became the preeminent gay icon of the late 20th century. The Advocate
s Steve Gdula commented "[b]ack in the 1980s and even the early 1990s, the release of a new Madonna video or single was akin to a national holiday, at least among her gay fans". Gdula also stated that during this period, concurrent with the rise of the AIDS epidemic, "when other artists tried to distance themselves from the very audience that helped their stars to rise, Madonna only turned the light back on her gay fans and made it burn all the brighter". Georges-Claude Guilbert, author of Madonna As Postmodern Myth: How One Star's Self-Construction Rewrites Sex, Gender, Hollywood and the American Dream, writes that Madonna's reverence as a gay icon is equated with that of Judy Garland, noting similarities between the two popular culture icons. Guilbert dictates that gay icons "usually belong to one or the other of two types of female stars: either the very vulnerable or suicidal star, or the strong idol whom nobody or nothing resists, like Madonna". According to Madonna: An Intimate Biography
, the pop star has always been aware that her most loyal fans were gay men, and has appeared in "gay-oriented magazines as an activist for gay rights and was even named in the book The Gay 100 as one of the most influential gay people in history".
Other superstar recording artists, such as Cyndi Lauper
followed. Lauper and Madonna were seen as trailblazers of women's sexual liberation. Lauper's 1983 debut album She's So Unusual
generated a large following of fans responding to the "gay-friendly camp and lesbian-friendly womyn power epitomized in [her] femme anthem "Girls Just Want to Have Fun
". Lauper explained that growing up during the 1960s influenced her dedication to fair and equal treatment of all people, noting that the music of the 1960s "helped to open the world’s point of view to change". According to Lauper "It wasn’t until my sister came out in the early ’70s that I became more aware of the bigoted slurs and the violence against a community of people...who were gay". Lauper has since become an active Gay Rights activist, often encouraging LGBT people and their allies to vote for equal rights. Political activism for LGBT rights is the theme of Lauper's annual True Colors Tour
.
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In the mid-to-late-1980s Oprah Winfrey
emerged as an icon for the gay community with an intimate confessional communication style that altered the cultural landscape. According to the book Freaks Talk Back by Yale sociologist Joshua Gamson, the tabloid talk show
genre, popularized by Oprah Winfrey and Phil Donahue
, did more to make gays mainstream and socially acceptable than any other development of the 20th century by providing decades of high-impact media visibility for sexual nonconformists. Ellen DeGeneres
cast Winfrey to play the therapist she comes out of the closet to on the controversial episode of her Ellen
sitcom. Though Winfrey abandoned her tabloid talk show format in the mid 1990s as the genre became flooded by more extreme clones like Ricki Lake
, Jenny Jones
and Jerry Springer
, she continued to broadcast shows that were perceived as gay-friendly. Her show Oprah's Big Give
was the first reality TV show with an openly gay host, Nate Berkus
. Her own show has been nominated several times for GLAAD Media Awards, winning one in 2007 and another in 2010 for an interview with Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi
. Oprah Winfrey also co-produced the Oscar-winning film Precious, which was honored by GLAAD for portraying a lesbian couple as heroines.
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Winfrey's iconic status among gay males has entered the popular culture. One of the stars of the reality TV show The Benefactor
was a gay African American man named Kevin who was so obsessed with Winfrey that he would ask "What would Oprah do?" before making any strategic decision. Adam Lambert
is another high profile gay man who has described himself as a fan of Winfrey.
Other icons from this decade include the cast of The Golden Girls
, Joan Collins
, Annie Lennox
, Siouxsie Sioux
, Morrissey
and Liza Minnelli
.
, who was twice established as one of the highest paid recording artists in the history of contemporary music during the 1990s, became a gay icon after she released her sixth studio album The Velvet Rope
(1997). The album was honored by the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum and received the award for Outstanding Music Album at the 9th Annual GLAAD Media Awards
in 1998 for its songs that dealt with sexual orientation and homophobia.
On April 26, 2008, she received the Vanguard Award—a media award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation—to honor her work in the entertainment industry in promoting equality for LGBT people. GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano commented, "Ms. Jackson has a tremendous following inside the LGBT community and out, and having her stand with us against the defamation that LGBT people still face in our country is extremely significant."
Kylie Minogue
reinvented herself musically in the first decade of the 21st century and found herself faced with a renewed increasing gay fan base. Minogue is regarded as a gay icon
, which she encourages with comments such as "I am not a traditional gay icon. There's been no tragedy in my life, only tragic outfits and hair" and "My gay audience has been with me from the beginning ... they kind of adopted me." Minogue has explained that she first became aware of her gay audience in 1988, when several drag queen
s performed to her music at a Sydney pub and she later saw a similar show in Melbourne. She said that she felt "very touched" to have such an "appreciative crowd" and this had encouraged her to perform at gay venues throughout the world, as well as headlining the 1994 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
.
In 2001 Kylie and the British singer Geri Halliwell
, other gay icon, kissed on a TV show to end prejudice. and The Spice Girls
can be seen as icons due to their message of female empowerment and not caring what others thought and embracing their differences. As a result of her role playing Karen Walker on Will & Grace
, Megan Mullally
emerged as a gay icon. One commentator wrote that the show "won the actress an impressive gay following, both with men and women, who want to be her and with her".
Controversial rock musician Courtney Love
, known for her audacious onstage behavior and disregard for authority, also emerged as a gay icon in the mid-1990s, when her band Hole
released their multi-platinum selling album, Live Through This
(1994). Love's own life struggles with drug addictions, her troubled childhood, depression, and general chauvinistic
adversity from the public are all factors that likely explain her regard as a gay icon; Love spent a significant portion of her teenage and early-adult years befriending gay men and drag queens. Love's devoted gay fanbase was later written about in a New York Press article when Hole released their fourth album in 2010.
In December 2002 Christina Aguilera
released her song Beautiful
, which would instantly become a gay anthem and would later be recognized as "the most empowering song of the decade for lesbian, gay and bisexual people of the decade". The accompanying video featured people who can feel ostracised from society, including a same-sex couple and a transgender man. Additionally, the song was sung by gay character Damian in the 2005 film Mean Girls
.
, Elton John
, Neil Patrick Harris
, k. d. lang, Rosie O'Donnell
,, and T.R. Knight became gay icons after becoming open about their sexual orientation as media professionals and public figures. Other icons from this decade include Lady Gaga
, Britney Spears
, Lucy Lawless
, Amy Winehouse
Tori Spelling
, as well as actress Meryl Streep
, especially her character of Miranda Priestly in the film The Devil Wears Prada
. On April 20, 2011, Christina Aguilera
was honored with the very first spot on The Abbey
's Gay Walk of Fame for her contributions to gay culture, re-inforcing the title of Gay Icon she had earned a decade ago with her anthem "Beautiful".
By the late first decade of the 21st century, several entertainers were dubbed as members of a new generation of gay icons. These include:
A-F
G-K
L-P
Q-U
V-Z
, Ben Cohen, David Beckham
and Cristiano Ronaldo
are seen as gay icons.
In the political arena, gay icons are represented by, among others, Princess Diana, George Moscone
, Coretta Scott King
, Abraham Lincoln
, Winnie Mandela, Hillary Clinton, Eva Peron
, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
, Imelda Marcos
and Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
, the world's first openly bisexual head of government
of the modern era. Roger Casement
, an Irish civil rights activist, became a gay icon of the early 20th century. Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King was held in high regard among members of the gay community for her involvement in the Gay Rights Movement. During her lifetime, she routinely equated the goals of the Civil Rights Movement
, led by her husband Martin Luther King Jr., with the that of LGBT activism.
San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk
was the first openly gay man to be elected to office in the U.S. and spearheaded the defeat of statewide anti-gay ballot measure Proposition 6 in California in 1978. While he and Moscone were assassinated shortly thereafter, both became viewed as something of martyrs for gay rights. Milk's image as a positive role model led to him becoming the namesake for the first high school primarily for gay teenagers, the Harvey Milk High School
. The portrayal of those efforts in the critically acclaimed film Milk
earned Sean Penn
an Oscar
and comparisons to the contemporary battle over the anti-gay ballot initiative Proposition 8
raging in California at the time of its release in 2008.
While most of these individuals have been lionized for their strength, style, compassion, or work for equal rights, an ironic icon is Anita Bryant
, who worked to oppose homosexuality. During the 1970s, Bryant led a national campaign, "Save Our Children", which conflated homosexuality and child molestation and insisted that because homosexuals cannot reproduce they must "recruit" or "convert" people to their lifestyle. California State Senator John V. Briggs applauded Bryant's work as a "national, religious crusade [and] courageous stand to protect American children from blatant homosexuality". However, as Bruce C. Steele of The Advocate documented, Bryant's crusade against the Gay Rights Movement had made her synonymous with it.
According to John Coppola, exhibit curator and former head of exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C., "In a completely unintended way, Anita Bryant was about the best thing to happen to the gay rights movement...She and her cohorts were so over the top that it just completely galvanized the gay rights movement". The 30th anniversary of Bryant's campaign against LGBT rights has been commemorated at the Stonewall Library & Archives
, with executive director Jack Rutland dubbing her "The Mother of Gay Rights".
, a fictional anthropomorphic rabbit appearing in animation by Warner Bros. Cartoons
during the Golden Age of American animation
—dubbed the greatest cartoon character of all time by TV Guide
—has been declared a "queer cultural icon [and] parodic diva" due to his "cross-dressing antics" and camp appeal. Cartoon characters SpongeBob SquarePants
and Patrick Star
have additionally become gay icons, due to their sometimes double entendre dialogues in their (cult) TV cartoon show. Winnie the Pooh has also affinity in the gay atmosphere and it has gained admiration as well as SpongeBob SquarePants, since it has been mentioned some reasons of this affiliation; the most common is that almost complete exclusion of female characters (the only female character Kanga is a kind, motherly figure on the story) and the male friendships are kind, caring, emotionally deep, tolerant, supportive, and inclusive.
The term has also extended to comic book characters. Homosexual interpretations of Batman
and the original Robin
, Dick Grayson
, have been an interest in cultural and academic study, due primarily to psychologist Fredric Wertham
's Seduction of the Innocent
(1954). In the mid-1950s, Werthman led a national campaign against comic books, convincing Americans that they were responsible for corrupting children and encouraging them to engage in acts of sex and violence. In relation to Batman and Robin, Wertham asserted "the Batman type of story helps to fixate homoerotic tendencies by suggesting the form of an adolescent-with-adult or Ganymede-Zeus type of love-relationship". In Containing America: Cultural Production and Consumption in Fifties America, authors Nathan Abrams and Julie Hughes point out that homosexual interpretations of Batman and Robin existed prior to Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent. Wertham claimed his book was, in fact, prompted by the earlier research of a Californian psychiatrist. The relationship between Batman and arch villain The Joker has also been interpreted by many as homoerotic. Frank Miller
, author of The Dark Knight Returns, has described the relationship between Batman and the Joker as a "homophobic nightmare," and views the character as sublimating his sexual urges into crime fighting, concluding, "He'd be much healthier if he were gay."
One of the TV series that appeals most to LGBT culture is the 1960s sitcom Bewitched
. Aside from the campy characterizations, it contained three gay cast members (Dick Sargent
, Paul Lynde
and – allegedly – Agnes Morehead). Star Elizabeth Montgomery
and Sargent were grand marshals of a Los Angeles gay pride parade
in the early 1990s. Other examples are the supernatural drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in which one of the female characters came out and began a lesbian relationship) and All My Children
s Bianca Montgomery
.
Many celebrities have responded positively to being regarded as gay icons. Several have noted the loyalty of their gay fans; Eartha Kitt
and Cher
credited gay fans with keeping them going at times when their careers had faltered. Kylie Minogue
has acknowledged the perception of her as a gay icon and has performed at such events as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
. Asked to explain the reason for her large gay fanbase, Minogue replied, "It's always difficult for me to give the definitive answer because I don't have it. My gay audience has been with me from the beginning... they kind of adopted me." She noted that she differed from many gay icons who were seen as tragic figures, with the comment, "I've had a lot of tragic hairdos and outfits. I think that makes up for it!"
Tammy Faye Messner, (ex-wife of fellow controversial televangelist Jim Bakker
and mother of pastor Jay Bakker
) who has been benevolently referred to as "the ultimate drag queen" — said in her last interview with Larry King
that, "When I went — when we lost everything, it was the gay people that came to my rescue, and I will always love them for that."
Others have been more ambivalent. Mae West
, a gay icon from the early days of her career, supported gay rights but bristled when her performance style was referred to as camp
. Judy Garland gained iconic status in part by acknowledging gay fans' existence at a time when few would, but her attitude toward her gay following was ambiguous.
Madonna
has acknowledged and embraced her gay following throughout her career, she even made several references to the gay community in her songs or performances, and performed at several gay clubs. She has declared in interviews that some of her best friends are gay and that she adores gays and refers to herself as "the biggest gay icon of all times." She also has been quoted in television interviews in the early 1990s as declaring the "big problem in America at the time was homophobia."
Turkish electronic pop singer Hande Yener
describes her relationship with the gay audience by stating that "there is a strong bond between us." She states that she tries new styles in her career and her stand against prejudices is best understood by gay audience. She also mentioned that she often goes to gay clubs. She starred as herself, a gay icon in a gay themed movie Kraliçe Fabrikada. She is one of the few Turkish singers who will perform in a gay club. She has participated to the İstanbul Gay Pride 2009.
Public figure
Public figure is a legal term applied in the context of defamation actions as well as invasion of privacy. A public figure cannot base a lawsuit on incorrect harmful statements unless there is proof that the writer or publisher acted with actual malice...
(historical or current) who is embraced by many within :lesbian, :gay, :bisexual and :transgender (LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
) communities. Dykon, a portmanteau of the words "dyke" and "icon", has recently entered common lexicon to describe figures particularly iconic to lesbians.
Qualities of a gay icon often include glamour
Glamour (presentation)
Glamour originally was a magical-occult spell cast on somebody to make them believe that something or somebody was attractive. In the late 19th century terminology a non magical item used to help create a more attractive appearance gradually became 'a glamour'...
, flamboyance, strength through adversity, and androgyny
Androgyny
Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- and γυνή , referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics...
in presentation. Such icons may be of any sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
or gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
; they may also be closeted
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
or open with their sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
and gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
. Although most gay icons have given their support to LGBT social movements
LGBT social movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements share inter-related goals of social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights, also called gay...
, some have expressed opposition
LGBT rights opposition
LGBT rights opposition refers to active opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights. Organizations influential in LGBT rights opposition frequently challenge judicial rulings, and legislative initiatives, and dispute findings that sexual orientation is an immutable...
– advocating against a perceived "homosexual agenda
Homosexual agenda
Homosexual agenda is a pejorative term used by some conservatives in the United States to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual orientations and relationships...
".
Historical icons are typically elevated to such status because their sexual orientation remains a topic of great debate among historians. Modern gay icons, who are predominantly female entertainers, commonly garner a large following within LGBT communities over the course of their careers. The majority of gay icons fall into one of two categories: the tragic, sometimes martyred figure or the prominent pop culture idol
Pop icon
A pop icon is a celebrity, character, or object whose exposure in pop culture constitutes a defining characteristic of a given society or era. The categorization is usually associated with elements such as longevity, ubiquity, and distinction. Moreover, "pop icon" status is distinguishable from...
.
Historical examples
Plausibly the earliest gay icon was Saint Sebastian, a Christian saint and martyr, whose strong and shirtless physique, symbolic arrow-pierced flesh, and rapturous look of pain combined have intrigued artists, both gay and straight, for centuries and began the first explicitly gay cult in the nineteenth century. Richard A. Kaye, a journalist, wrote, "contemporary gay men have seen in Sebastian at once a stunning advertisement for homosexual desire (indeed, a homoerotic ideal), and a prototypical portrait of tortured closet case." Due to Saint Sebastian's status as gay icon, Tennessee WilliamsTennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
chose to use that name for the martyred character Sebastian in his play, Suddenly, Last Summer
Suddenly, Last Summer
Suddenly, Last Summer is a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. It opened off Broadway on January 7, 1958, as part of a double bill with another of Williams's one-acts, Something Unspoken. The presentation of the two plays was given the overall title Garden District, but Suddenly, Last Summer is...
. The name was also used by Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
– as Sebastian Melmoth – when in exile after his release from prison. Wilde, an Irish writer and poet, was about as "out of the closet
Out of the Closet
Out of the Closet is a nonprofit chain of thrift stores whose revenues provide medical care for patients with HIV/AIDS. The chain is owned and operated by AIDS Healthcare Foundation , a Los Angeles-based global organization that provides medical, preventative, and educational resources for patients...
" as was possible for the late nineteenth century, and is himself considered to be a gay icon.
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
was an early lesbian icon. Rumors about her relationships with women circulated in pornographic detail by anti-royalist pamphlets before the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. In Victorian England
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, biographers who idealized the Ancien Régime made a point of denying the rumours, but at the same time romanticised Marie Antoinette's "sisterly" friendship with the Princesse de Lamballe as – in the words of an 1858 biography – one of the "rare and great loves that Providence unites in death." By the end of the nineteenth century she was a cult icon of "sapphism"; her execution, seen as tragic martyrdom, may have added to her appeal. Allusions to her appearance in early twentieth century lesbian literature
Lesbian literature
This is a list of books portraying sexual relations between female characters, who may include lesbians, bisexuals and WSWs.-Classic fiction and drama:*The Bachelor Girl – Victor Margueritte –...
– most notably Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :...
's The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness is a 1928 lesbian novel by the British author Radclyffe Hall. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" is apparent from an early age...
– where the gay playwright Jonathan Brockett describes Marie Antoinette and de Lamballe as "poor souls... sick to death of the subterfuge and pretenses." She had crossover appeal as a gay icon as well, at least for Jean Genet
Jean Genet
Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
, who was fascinated by her story. He included a reenactment of her execution in his 1947 play The Maids
The Maids
The Maids is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris in a production that opened on 17 April 1947, which Louis Jouvet directed...
.
Modern examples
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
– who reached her peak in the 1950s – became a gay icon, for example, because the uniquely compelling qualities of her stage performances were allied to a tempestuous private life, a sequence of unhappy love affairs, and a lonely, premature death in Paris after her voice had deserted her.
Lesbian icons are most often powerful women who are, or are rumored to be, lesbian or bisexual. However, a few male entertainers have also had iconic status for lesbians. James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
was an early lesbian icon who, along with Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, influenced the butch
Butch and femme
Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...
look and self-image in the 1950s and after. One critic has argued for Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
as a minor lesbian icon, attributing his appeal to "lesbian identification with troubled and suffering masculinity." Science fiction author Forrest J Ackerman
Forrest J Ackerman
Forrest J Ackerman was an American collector of science fiction books and movie memorabilia and a science fiction fan...
was dubbed an "honorary lesbian" for his help during the early days of the Daughters of Bilitis
Daughters of Bilitis
The Daughters of Bilitis , was the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. It was formed in San Francisco in 1955, conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars, which were considered illegal and thus subject to raids and police harassment...
. He also wrote lesbian-themed fiction under the pseudonym Laurajean Ermayne.
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
s are usually gay icons. The definition of what it means to be a "gay icon" has come under criticism in recent years for a lack of substance, as Paul Flynn of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
comments "the concept of gay icon is a cheap ticket...[and] the idea of gay iconography itself is currently replaceable with the idea of popularity and the ability to carry a strong, identifiable, signature look". Author Michael Thomas Ford
Michael Thomas Ford
Michael Thomas Ford is an American author of primarily gay-themed literature. He is best known for his "My Queer Life" series of humorous essay collections and for his award-winning novels Last Summer, Looking for It, Full Circle, Changing Tides and What We Remember.-Career highlights:Michael...
depicts a similar attitude in his work of fiction, Last Summer.
Although the term "gay icon" is most commonly seen in the United States, the concept is to be found in other cultures, as well. Dalida
Dalida
Dalida , born with Italian name of Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, was a world-famous singer and actress born in Egypt with Italian origins but naturalised French with the name Yolanda Gigliotti. She spent her early years in Egypt amongst the Italian Egyptian community, but she lived most of her adult...
, the Egyptian singer of Italian origin, had a career-long gay following that extended out of Paris and well into the Middle East. In the years since her death, her iconic status has not diminished. Likewise, Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
actor Abhishek Bachchan
Abhishek Bachchan
Abhishek Bachchan is an Indian actor and producer. He is the son of Indian actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan and is married to actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai....
was recently declared to be a gay icon in a national poll in India. Though homosexuality still carries a stigma in India, he was quoted as saying that "Appreciation and love from any quarter is welcome," and that, though he is straight himself, he was comfortable with having a large fan base among gay men. In the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Willeke Alberti
Willeke Alberti
Willeke Alberti is a Dutch singer and actress, the daughter of entertainer and singer Willy Alberti.-Biography:...
is widely embraced as a gay icon, due to a combination of her song repertoire, her durability, and her performances in support of manifold gay causes. Spanish actress Carmen Maura
Carmen Maura
Carmen García Maura is a Spanish actress. In a career that has spanned six decades, Maura is best known for her collaborations with noted Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar.-Early life:...
, Italian singer Mina, Scottish pop singer Jimmy Somerville
Jimmy Somerville
James William Somerville is a Scottish pop singer and songwriter. He had considerable success in the 1980s with the pop groups Bronski Beat and The Communards, and has also had a successful solo career. He is known in particular for his falsetto singing voice...
, German singer-songwriter Marianne Rosenberg
Marianne Rosenberg
Marianne Rosenberg is a German Schlager music singer and songwriter.Marianne Rosenberg is the third of seven children from Auschwitz survivor Otto Rosenberg, who was a long-time advocate and representative of the Sinti and Roma peoples in Germany, a function which Marianne's sister Petra later...
and English singer Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
are also considered to be gay icons.
Latin American figures have also gained reputations as gay icons. Alaska y Dinarama
Alaska y Dinarama
Alaska y Dinarama was a Spanish electro-pop band formed by Olvido Gara, Ignacio "Nacho" Canut Guillen and Carlos Garcia Berlanga de Manrique in 1982. The group was popular and influential during La Movida Madrileña...
is one example, with their single "¿A quién le importa?
¿A Quién le Importa?
"¿A quién le importa?" is a successful single released by the Spanish pop rock band Alaska y Dinarama's 1986 "No es pecado" album. In 2002 Latin pop singer Thalia engendered a very successful cover and hit single of the song in her 2002 self titled studio album; Which was released as the second...
" (later covered in 2002 by Thalía
Thalía
Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda , known simply by the mononym Thalía , is a Mexican singer and actress. She has sold over 40 million albums worldwide...
) which was a hit for the 1980s Spanish band, becoming a gay anthem
Gay anthem
A gay anthem is a song that has become widely popular among, or has become identified with, the LGBT community; usually with gay men. The lyrics of gay anthems are often marked with hope against the odds, pride, unity, or defiance...
for the Spanish language-speaking LGBT community. Gloria Trevi
Gloria Trevi
Gloria Trevi is a Mexican pop-rock singer-songwriter. She was described as the "Supreme Diva of the Mexican Pop" by the music channel VH1 and sold over 20 million records.-Biography:...
is considered a gay icon especially after her release of "Todos Me Miran" ("They all watch me") featuring a rejected gay man turned drag queen, but had been popular with the gay and lesbian community in Mexico since the beginnings of her career for being a controversial and powerful singer. Paulina Rubio
Paulina Rubio
Paulina Susana Rubio Rue is a Mexican singer and actress. Rubio achieved international stardom with her fifth studio album, Paulina...
, Mexican singer and actress, has been a gay icon for Latin America after supporting gay marriage and publicly stating she wants to have sex with fellow gay icon Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
.
1930s–1940s
The 1930s saw a number of writers, political activists, and celebrities garner reputations as gay icons. Poet and satirical writer Dorothy ParkerDorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
reportedly had a large gay following. Though the phrase "friend of Dorothy
Friend of Dorothy
In gay slang, a "friend of Dorothy" is a term for a gay man. The phrase dates back to at least World War II, when homosexual acts were illegal in the United States. Stating that, or asking if, someone was a "friend of Dorothy" was a euphemism used for discussing sexual orientation without others...
" was made popular in later years by Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
's role in the The Wizard Of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
, some speculate it originated with Parker.
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
' performance in Dark Victory
Dark Victory
Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...
(1939), was dubbed by Queer theorist
Queer theory
Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of LGBT studies and feminist studies. Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself...
Eve Sedgwick as "the epistemology of the closet". Davis' portrayal of the melodramatic Judith Traherne made her talent for playing someone with a secret revered and her "camp-worthy" dialog reflexive of the "flamboyant gay queen of the dramatic arts". Ed Sikov, author of Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis, comments 20th century gay men developed their own subculture following Davis' example.
In Marcella Althaus-Reid
Marcella Althaus-Reid
Marcella Althaus-Reid was Professor of contextual theology at New College, University of Edinburgh. When appointed, she was the only woman professor of theology at a Scottish University, and the first woman professor of theology at New College in its 160 year history .She was born in Rosario, ,...
's Liberation Theology and Sexuality, Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, who is considered to be the first German-born actress to receive critical acclaim in Hollywood, is a model of liberation and subversion, as well as beauty, perfection and sensuality. In Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Althaus-Reid discovered a statue of Dietrich dressed as Nossa Senhora de Aparecida in a gay bar in Copacabana beach. The image of Dietrich as the black Virgin Mary
Black Madonna
A Black Madonna or Black Virgin is a statue or painting of the Virgin Mary in which the Virgin Mary is black. The term was especially applied to those created in Europe in the medieval period or earlier...
represents her overcoming duality. According to Althaus-Reid, it is a figure which sanctifies Dietrich while simultaneously liberating Mary. Other icons from this time period include Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
, who endured speculation over his alleged relationships with men, Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...
, Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
, Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known primarily for her powerful voice and roles in musical theatre, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." Among the many standards introduced by Merman in Broadway musicals are "I Got Rhythm", "Everything's...
, Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
, Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
, Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
, Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...
, Edith Piaf
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
, and Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
.
1950s–1960s
Judy Garland as gay icon
Actress Judy Garland is widely considered a gay icon; The Advocate has called Garland "The Elvis of homosexuals." The reasons frequently given for her standing as an icon among gay men are admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles seemed to mirror those of gay men in...
. Michael Bronski, author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility, describes Garland as "the quintessential pre-Stonewall gay icon". So revered is she as a gay icon that her best known film role, that of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
, became used as code among homosexuals in the 1950s. The expression, "Is he a friend of Dorothy?" was slang for, "Is he gay?" The character Dorothy met an odd group of friends during her journey through Oz—the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow—and so referring to an individual as a "friend of Dorothy" meant that they were "unusual or odd" and thus "queer". Though Garland has been noted for her embodiment of camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
in her acting roles, Bronski argues that she was the "antithesis of camp" and "made a legend of her pain and oppression." As Bronski observes, the bleak setting of 1950s Hollywood had replaced the "sauciness of the 30s and the independence of the 40s". Garland, as well as Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
and Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...
, epitomized the idea that "suffering was the price of glamor...[and] the women stars of the 50s reflected the condition of many gay men: they suffered, beautifully".
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
would later follow in her mother's footsteps as a gay icon, as would fellow musical artist Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
. Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
has been described as the "Ultimate Gay Icon — the martyr who suffered for her art, and therefore enabled herself to bond with this all-important faction of her fan-base". In Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography, author Lawrence J. Quirk explains that Crawford appealed to gay men because they sympathized with her struggle for success; in both the entertainment industry and in her personal life. Though Crawford had been a notable film star during the 1930s and 1940s, according to David Bret, author of Joan Crawford: Hollywood Martyr, it was not until her 1953 film Torch Song
Torch Song (film)
Torch Song is a 1953 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature film starring Joan Crawford and Michael Wilding in a story about a Broadway star and her rehearsal pianist. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes and Jan Lustig was based upon the story "Why Should I Cry?" by I.A.R. Wylie...
that she was seen as a "complete gay icon, primarily because it was shot in color". Bret further explains that seeing the actress' red hair, dark eyes and 'Victory Red' lips linked her to "gaydom's other sirens: Dietrich, Garland, Bankhead, Piaf, and new recruits Marilyn Monroe and Maria Callas".
Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
is also a prominent icon from this period. In Lee Tannen's book I Loved Lucy: My Friendship with Lucille Ball, the author describes his experience when he witnessed Lucille Ball being labeled a gay icon for the first time by a mutual friend. Ball was told of the adoration she received from gay men, as a bar in West Hollywood was known for routinely playing episodes of her television series I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
every weekend. In an interview with Out
Out (magazine)
Out is a popular gay and lesbian fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any gay monthly publication in the United States. It carries itself in a similar editorial manner to Details, Esquire, and GQ. Out was published by PlanetOut Inc...
magazine, Tannen expressed his opinion that Ball's television character Lucy Ricardo was the true gay icon, as "Lucy Ricardo was the underdog who was always trying to prove herself, and I think many gay men can identify with that." Other icons from this time include Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
, Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
, Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
, Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds
Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...
, Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
, Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
, Fabulous Moolah, Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
, Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
, Clara Ward
Clara Ward
Clara Ward was an American gospel artist who achieved great success, both artistic and commercial, in the 1940s and 1950s as leader of The Famous Ward Singers....
, Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
, Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
and Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
.
1970s–1980s
The first gay icon of the underground gay disco scene in the 1970s was the "Queen of Disco" Donna SummerDonna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines , known by her stage name, Donna Summer, is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach...
, whose dance songs became anthems for the clubbing gay community
Gay anthem
A gay anthem is a song that has become widely popular among, or has become identified with, the LGBT community; usually with gay men. The lyrics of gay anthems are often marked with hope against the odds, pride, unity, or defiance...
. Her number one single "Love to Love You Baby
Love to Love You Baby (song)
"Love to Love You Baby" is a song by American singer Donna Summer released in 1975 . It became one of the first ever disco hits to also be released in an extended form.-Song information and original release:...
"—regarded as an "absolute disco epic"—not only became a gay anthem because of its "unabridged sexuality", it brought European-oriented disco to the United States and influenced the course the recording industry would take in the following years. However, Summer became immersed in controversy when, after becoming a born-again Christian during the 1980s at the dawn of the AIDS crisis, she was reported as saying homophobic remarks, including that "AIDS was God's punishment to homosexuals".
During the mid-1980s, many statements denying these circulating rumors were issued by Summer's publicist and she was supported by some within the recording industry and the gay community. Summer, however, never issued any statements herself until several years later. In a 1989 interview with The Advocate, Summer stated a number of people she has worked with throughout her career are openly gay and she has never judged them for it; "I don't look at people by their sexual orientation. I don't judge people because they are gay or straight. My love for people is based on my compassion as a person". Fellow disco singer Gloria Gaynor
Gloria Gaynor
Gloria Gaynor is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits; "I Will Survive" , "Never Can Say Goodbye" , "Let Me Know " and "I Am What I Am" .-Early career:Gaynor was a singer with the Soul...
was embraced by the gay community because of her single "I Will Survive
I Will Survive
"I Will Survive" is a song first performed by American singer Gloria Gaynor, released in October 1978. It was written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris...
", which served as an anthem for both feminists and the Gay Rights movement.
Singer Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot , born Ellen Naomi Cohen and also known as Mama Cass, was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot was found dead in her room in London, England, from an apparent heart attack after two weeks of sold-out...
became known as a gay icon, both during her solo career and as a member of The Mamas and the Papas. Both through her camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
fashion and lyrics praising individuality (such as "Make Your Own Kind of Music" and "Different") and free love, her musical impact became known. Her music was later featured in the 1996 acclaimed gay film Beautiful Thing
Beautiful Thing
Originally Beautiful Thing is a play written by Jonathan Harvey and first performed in 1993. A screen adaptation of the play was released in 1996 by Channel 4 Films, with a revised screenplay also by Harvey. Initially, the film was only intended for television broadcast but it was so well-received...
, adapted from the play of the same name.
Singer/actress Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
also became recognized as a gay icon in the 1970s. After performing on Broadway, Bette began performing at the Continental Baths
Continental Baths
In 1968, Steve Ostrow opened the Continental Baths in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel in New York City. Continental Baths was advertised as reminiscent of "the glory of ancient Rome."-Facilities:...
, a gay bathhouse
Gay bathhouse
Gay bathhouses, also known as gay saunas or steam baths, are commercial bathhouses for men to have sex with other men. In gay slang in some regions these venues are also known colloquially as "the baths" or "the tubs," and should not be confused with public bathing.Not all men who visit gay...
in the city, where she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
, who produced her first major album, The Divine Miss M
The Divine Miss M (album)
The Divine Miss M is the debut album by American female vocalist Bette Midler, released in 1972 on the Atlantic Records label. The title of the album refers to Midler's famous stage persona...
, in 1973.
Other artists particularly embraced by the gay community during the '70s and '80s included Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
, Grace Jones
Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...
, Charo
Charo
María del Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Gutiérrez de los Perales Santa Ana Romanguera y de la Hinojosa Rasten , better known as Charo, is a Spanish-American actress, comedienne, and flamenco guitarist, best known for her flamboyant stage presence, her provocative outfits, and her trademark phrase...
, Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige OBE is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, North London, Paige attended the Aida Foster stage school, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16...
, and Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
. Two gay Britons, writer Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp , was an English writer and raconteur. He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant.- Early life :...
and singer Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
of Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
also became popular icons, as well as a bisexual Briton, David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
. Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
also became a gay icon in his own right during this decade, a status strengthened during the 1990s (see below).
Disco and icon pop music singer and actress Goddess of Pop, Cher became notable in the gay community not only for her music, but for her portrayal of a lesbian in Silkwood
Silkwood
Silkwood is a 1983 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was inspired by the true-life story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she...
, for which she received an Academy Award nomination. In later years, her daughter Chastity Bono
Chastity Bono
Chaz Salvatore Bono is an American transgender advocate, writer, actor, and musician. Bono is the only child of American entertainers Sonny and Cher, though each had children from other relationships...
came out as gay at the age of seventeen, much to her mother's initial feelings of "guilt, fear and pain". When Cher was able to accept her daughter's sexual orientation, she realized that Chastity, as well as other LGBT people "didn't have the same rights as everyone else, [and she] thought that was unfair". Cher emerged not only as an icon among LGBT people, but also a role model for straight parents who have gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender children. She became the keynote speaker for the 1997 national Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) convention. Cher's longevity in the music industry has often been credited to her gay following. William J. Mann, author of Gay Pride: A Celebration of All Things Gay and Lesbian, comments "[w]e'll be dancing to a ninety-year old Cher when we're sixty. Just watch".
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
—became the preeminent gay icon of the late 20th century. The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
s Steve Gdula commented "[b]ack in the 1980s and even the early 1990s, the release of a new Madonna video or single was akin to a national holiday, at least among her gay fans". Gdula also stated that during this period, concurrent with the rise of the AIDS epidemic, "when other artists tried to distance themselves from the very audience that helped their stars to rise, Madonna only turned the light back on her gay fans and made it burn all the brighter". Georges-Claude Guilbert, author of Madonna As Postmodern Myth: How One Star's Self-Construction Rewrites Sex, Gender, Hollywood and the American Dream, writes that Madonna's reverence as a gay icon is equated with that of Judy Garland, noting similarities between the two popular culture icons. Guilbert dictates that gay icons "usually belong to one or the other of two types of female stars: either the very vulnerable or suicidal star, or the strong idol whom nobody or nothing resists, like Madonna". According to Madonna: An Intimate Biography
Madonna: An Intimate Biography
Madonna: An Intimate Biography is a book by American author J. Randy Taraborrelli, chronicling the life of American recording artist Madonna. The book was released in April 2001 by Sidgwick & Jackson in the United Kingdom, and in August 2001 by Simon & Schuster in the United States...
, the pop star has always been aware that her most loyal fans were gay men, and has appeared in "gay-oriented magazines as an activist for gay rights and was even named in the book The Gay 100 as one of the most influential gay people in history".
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
followed. Lauper and Madonna were seen as trailblazers of women's sexual liberation. Lauper's 1983 debut album She's So Unusual
She's So Unusual
She's So Unusual is the debut studio album by American pop singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper. Released in 1983 by Portrait Records, the album catapulted Lauper to stardom with such hits as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", "All Through the Night", and "Money Changes...
generated a large following of fans responding to the "gay-friendly camp and lesbian-friendly womyn power epitomized in [her] femme anthem "Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Girls Just Want to Have Fun may refer to:In music:* "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", the first major single released by singer Cyndi Lauper on She's So UnusualIn film:...
". Lauper explained that growing up during the 1960s influenced her dedication to fair and equal treatment of all people, noting that the music of the 1960s "helped to open the world’s point of view to change". According to Lauper "It wasn’t until my sister came out in the early ’70s that I became more aware of the bigoted slurs and the violence against a community of people...who were gay". Lauper has since become an active Gay Rights activist, often encouraging LGBT people and their allies to vote for equal rights. Political activism for LGBT rights is the theme of Lauper's annual True Colors Tour
True Colors Tour
The True Colors Tour is an annual music tour created by American pop singer Cyndi Lauper. The tour benefits the Human Rights Campaign and other organizations that provide support to the LGBT community and to the straight friends and family who love them, including PFLAG and the Matthew Shepard...
.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
emerged as an icon for the gay community with an intimate confessional communication style that altered the cultural landscape. According to the book Freaks Talk Back by Yale sociologist Joshua Gamson, the tabloid talk show
Tabloid talk show
Tabloid talk shows are a genre of American television programming talk shows that achieved peak viewership during the late 20th century. Airing mostly during the day and distributed mostly through broadcast syndication, this genre originated with The Phil Donahue Show and was popularized by the...
genre, popularized by Oprah Winfrey and Phil Donahue
Phil Donahue
Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...
, did more to make gays mainstream and socially acceptable than any other development of the 20th century by providing decades of high-impact media visibility for sexual nonconformists. Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen Lee DeGeneres is an American stand-up comedienne, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and was also a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season....
cast Winfrey to play the therapist she comes out of the closet to on the controversial episode of her Ellen
Ellen (TV series)
Ellen is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.The theme song, "So Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas...
sitcom. Though Winfrey abandoned her tabloid talk show format in the mid 1990s as the genre became flooded by more extreme clones like Ricki Lake
Ricki Lake
Ricki Pamela Lake is an American actress, producer, and television host. She is best known for her starring role as Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray, her ground-breaking documentary film The Business of Being Born, and her talk show which was broadcasted internationally from...
, Jenny Jones
Jenny Jones (presenter)
Jenny Jones is a former Canadian American stand-up comedian and talk show host. She hosted The Jenny Jones Show from 1991 to 2003.-Life and career:...
and Jerry Springer
Jerry Springer
Gerald Norman "Jerry" Springer is a British-born American television presenter, best known as host of the tabloid talk show The Jerry Springer Show since its debut in 1991...
, she continued to broadcast shows that were perceived as gay-friendly. Her show Oprah's Big Give
Oprah's Big Give
Oprah's Big Give is a reality television series that aired Sunday nights at 9:00 PM Eastern/8:00PM Central on ABC, and is hosted by Nate Berkus. The Big Give is produced by Harpo Productions, and created and produced by Oprah Winfrey, and also produced by Bert Van Munster and Elise Doganieri...
was the first reality TV show with an openly gay host, Nate Berkus
Nate Berkus
Nathan Jay "Nate" Berkus is an American interior designer and daytime television host. He runs the Chicago interior design firm Nate Berkus Associates and has been a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, offering design advice to viewers. May 25, 2010, was his last day on The Oprah Winfrey Show...
. Her own show has been nominated several times for GLAAD Media Awards, winning one in 2007 and another in 2010 for an interview with Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi
Portia de Rossi
Portia Lee James DeGeneres , known professionally as Portia de Rossi , is an Australian-American actress, best known for her roles as lawyer Nelle Porter on the television series Ally McBeal and Lindsay Bluth Fünke on the sitcom Arrested Development...
. Oprah Winfrey also co-produced the Oscar-winning film Precious, which was honored by GLAAD for portraying a lesbian couple as heroines.
The Benefactor
The Benefactor is an American reality television show broadcast on ABC starting on September 13, 2004. The premise involved 16 contestants vying to win US$1 million from billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban....
was a gay African American man named Kevin who was so obsessed with Winfrey that he would ask "What would Oprah do?" before making any strategic decision. Adam Lambert
Adam Lambert
Adam Mitchel Lambert is an American singer, songwriter, and actor from San Diego, California. In May 2009, he finished as the runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol...
is another high profile gay man who has described himself as a fan of Winfrey.
Other icons from this decade include the cast of The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
, Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
, Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox, OBE , born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A...
, Siouxsie Sioux
Siouxsie Sioux
Siouxsie Sioux is an English singer-songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer of the critically acclaimed rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees and of its splinter group The Creatures . The Banshees produced eleven studio albums and a string of hit singles including "Hong Kong Garden",...
, Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
and Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
.
1990s–2000s
Janet JacksonJanet Jackson as gay icon
Janet Jackson is an American singer-songwriter and actress, who is considered to be a gay icon. Jackson garnered a substantial gay following during 1990s as she gained prominence in popular music...
, who was twice established as one of the highest paid recording artists in the history of contemporary music during the 1990s, became a gay icon after she released her sixth studio album The Velvet Rope
The Velvet Rope
The Velvet Rope is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson, released October 7, 1997 by Virgin Records. Prior to its debut, Jackson had been at the center of a second high-profile bidding war over her recording contract...
(1997). The album was honored by the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum and received the award for Outstanding Music Album at the 9th Annual GLAAD Media Awards
GLAAD Media Awards
The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives...
in 1998 for its songs that dealt with sexual orientation and homophobia.
On April 26, 2008, she received the Vanguard Award—a media award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation—to honor her work in the entertainment industry in promoting equality for LGBT people. GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano commented, "Ms. Jackson has a tremendous following inside the LGBT community and out, and having her stand with us against the defamation that LGBT people still face in our country is extremely significant."
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
reinvented herself musically in the first decade of the 21st century and found herself faced with a renewed increasing gay fan base. Minogue is regarded as a gay icon
Gay icon
A gay icon is a public figure who is embraced by many within :lesbian, :gay, :bisexual and :transgender communities...
, which she encourages with comments such as "I am not a traditional gay icon. There's been no tragedy in my life, only tragic outfits and hair" and "My gay audience has been with me from the beginning ... they kind of adopted me." Minogue has explained that she first became aware of her gay audience in 1988, when several drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
s performed to her music at a Sydney pub and she later saw a similar show in Melbourne. She said that she felt "very touched" to have such an "appreciative crowd" and this had encouraged her to perform at gay venues throughout the world, as well as headlining the 1994 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
The Sydney Mardi Gras is an annual LGBTQI pride parade and festival in Sydney, Australia, and draws in thousands of visitors from around Australia and overseas...
.
In 2001 Kylie and the British singer Geri Halliwell
Geri Halliwell
Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...
, other gay icon, kissed on a TV show to end prejudice. and The Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
can be seen as icons due to their message of female empowerment and not caring what others thought and embracing their differences. As a result of her role playing Karen Walker on Will & Grace
Will & Grace
Will & Grace was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 21, 1998 to May 18, 2006 for a total of eight seasons. Will & Grace remains the most successful television series with gay principal characters...
, Megan Mullally
Megan Mullally
Megan Mullally is an American actress and singer.After working in the theatre in Chicago, Mullally moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and began to appear in supporting roles in film and television productions. She made her Broadway debut in Grease in 1994 and she has since appeared in several Broadway...
emerged as a gay icon. One commentator wrote that the show "won the actress an impressive gay following, both with men and women, who want to be her and with her".
Controversial rock musician Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
, known for her audacious onstage behavior and disregard for authority, also emerged as a gay icon in the mid-1990s, when her band Hole
Hole (band)
Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
released their multi-platinum selling album, Live Through This
Live Through This
Live Through This is the second studio album by American alternative rock band Hole. It was released by Geffen Records on April 12, 1994, just four days after frontwoman Courtney Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, was found dead in their home....
(1994). Love's own life struggles with drug addictions, her troubled childhood, depression, and general chauvinistic
Chauvinism
Chauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a belief in national superiority and glory. It is an eponym of a possibly fictional French soldier Nicolas Chauvin who was credited with many superhuman feats in the Napoleonic wars.By extension it has come...
adversity from the public are all factors that likely explain her regard as a gay icon; Love spent a significant portion of her teenage and early-adult years befriending gay men and drag queens. Love's devoted gay fanbase was later written about in a New York Press article when Hole released their fourth album in 2010.
In December 2002 Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
released her song Beautiful
Beautiful (Christina Aguilera song)
"Beautiful" is a song written by Linda Perry and recorded by American singer Christina Aguilera for Aguilera's fourth studio album, Stripped...
, which would instantly become a gay anthem and would later be recognized as "the most empowering song of the decade for lesbian, gay and bisexual people of the decade". The accompanying video featured people who can feel ostracised from society, including a same-sex couple and a transgender man. Additionally, the song was sung by gay character Damian in the 2005 film Mean Girls
Mean Girls
Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy-drama film directed by Mark Waters. The screenplay was written by Tina Fey and is based in part on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, which describes how female high school social cliques operate and the effect they can have...
.
2010s–present
Celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneresEllen DeGeneres
Ellen Lee DeGeneres is an American stand-up comedienne, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and was also a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season....
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
, k. d. lang, Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell
Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American stand-up comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family...
,, and T.R. Knight became gay icons after becoming open about their sexual orientation as media professionals and public figures. Other icons from this decade include Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
, Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless, MNZM is a New Zealander actress and singer best known for playing the title character of the internationally successful television series Xena: Warrior Princess....
, Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
Tori Spelling
Tori Spelling
Victoria Davey "Tori" Spelling is an American actress. Spelling became known in the early 1990s for her role as Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210. Spelling then had roles in a string of made-for-television films, such as A Friend to Die For and Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?...
, as well as actress Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
, especially her character of Miranda Priestly in the film The Devil Wears Prada
The Devil Wears Prada (film)
The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film, a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine...
. On April 20, 2011, Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
was honored with the very first spot on The Abbey
The Abbey (club)
The Abbey is a bar and nightclub in West Hollywood, California.The bar originally opened in 1991 as a gay coffeehouse. Wanting more of an evening appeal, a bar area was made...
's Gay Walk of Fame for her contributions to gay culture, re-inforcing the title of Gay Icon she had earned a decade ago with her anthem "Beautiful".
By the late first decade of the 21st century, several entertainers were dubbed as members of a new generation of gay icons. These include:
A-F
- Christina AguileraChristina AguileraChristina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
- Alaska (singer)Alaska (singer)Alaska is a Spanish - Mexican singer, dj, and TV personality famous in Spain and Latin America. She was of the main characters in the so called Movida the cultural movement following the Franco dictatorship in Spain...
- Tori AmosTori AmosTori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
- Tina ArenaTina ArenaFilippina Lydia "Tina" Arena is an Australian singer, songwriter and musical theatre actress. She has won several awards, most notably 6 ARIA Awards and in both 1996 and 2000 she received the World Music Award for the world's best selling Australian artist...
- Tallulah BankheadTallulah BankheadTallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...
- Lance BassLance BassJames Lance Bass , best known as Lance Bass, is an American pop singer, dancer, actor, film and television producer, and author. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band 'N Sync. 'N Sync's success led Bass to work in film and television...
- Victoria BeckhamVictoria BeckhamVictoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...
- Edith Bouvier BealeEdith Bouvier BealeEdith Bouvier Beale was an American socialite, fashion model and cabaret performer. She was a first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill...
- Beyoncé
- BjörkBjörkBjörk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
- Kate BushKate BushKate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...
- Mariah CareyMariah CareyMariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
- Jessica CapshawJessica CapshawJessica Brooke Capshaw is an American actress. She is known for her role as Jamie Stringer in The Practice and for her role as Dr...
- Moria CasanMoria CasánMoria Casán is an Argentine actress, television host, producer, media personality and vedette. Her Net worth estimated in $300 million. She is one of the most important women in Argentine show. She has a long career in cinema, theatre and television.- Career :Casán was born in Buenos Aires...
- Kim CattrallKim CattrallKim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
- Margaret ChoMargaret ChoMargaret Cho is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality. She has also directed and appeared in music...
- Kurt CobainKurt CobainKurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
- Emily BluntEmily BluntEmily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
- Sophie Ellis-BextorSophie Ellis-BextorSophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor is an English singer, songwriter, model and occasional DJ. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s, as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience. After the group disbanded, Ellis-Bextor went solo, achieving widespread success in the early 2000s...
- Mylène FarmerMylène FarmerMylène Farmer, , born Marie-Hélène Jeanne Gautier, , , is a French singer, songwriter, occasional actress and author....
- FeyFeyFey may refer to:* A word meaning "wild or crazy acting", often ascribed to supernatural causes and evidenced by abnormal behavior...
- Tina FeyTina FeyElizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer, known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live , the NBC comedy series 30 Rock, and films such as Mean Girls and Baby Mama .Fey first broke into comedy as a featured player in the...
- Harvey FiersteinHarvey FiersteinHarvey Forbes Fierstein is a U.S. actor and playwright, noted for the early distinction of winning Tony Awards for both writing and originating the lead role in his long-running play Torch Song Trilogy, about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family, as well as writing the...
G-K
- Sarah Michelle GellarSarah Michelle GellarSarah Michelle Prinze , known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar , is an American actress, singer and executive producer...
- Susana GimenezSusana GiménezSusana Giménez, née María Susana Giménez Aubert is an Argentine actress, ex-vedette and television host....
- Girls AloudGirls AloudGirls Aloud are a British and Irish pop girl group based in London. They were created through the ITV1 talent show Popstars The Rivals in 2002. The group consists of Cheryl Cole , Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. They are signed to Fascination Records, a Polydor...
- Kathy GriffinKathy GriffinKathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin is an American actress, stand-up comedienne, television personality, New York Times best-selling author and an LGBT rights advocate. Griffin first gained recognition for appearances on two episodes of Seinfeld, and then for her supporting role on the NBC sitcom...
- Alison GoldfrappAlison GoldfrappAlison Elizabeth Margaret Goldfrapp is an English singer-songwriter and record producer, best known as the lead singer of the electronic music duo Goldfrapp. Goldfrapp has a soprano vocal range.-Early life:...
- Jake GyllenhaalJake GyllenhaalJacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
- Rob HalfordRob HalfordRobert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...
- Van HansisVan HansisVan Hansis is an American actor. Hansis, who uses the name Van professionally, starred on the long-running CBS soap opera As the World Turns as Luke Snyder, the son of one of the show's signature supercouples, Holden and Lily Snyder ,...
- Debbie HarryDebbie HarryDeborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
- Anne HathawayAnne Hathaway (actress)Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
- Jennifer HudsonJennifer HudsonJennifer Kate Hudson is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in 2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of American Idol coming in seventh place...
- La Toya JacksonLa Toya JacksonLa Toya Yvonne Jackson is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, television personality, actress, businesswoman, philanthropist, activist and former model. She is the fifth child of the Jackson family...
- Kent JamesKent JamesKent Bradley James is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and activist. He is also known as Nick Name.- 1990s :...
- KazakyKazakyKazaky is an all-male Ukrainian dance group. Assembled by choreographer Oleg Zhezhel, the group has released several songs which have garnered popularity on YouTube...
- Johnny KnoxvilleJohnny KnoxvillePhilip John Clapp , better known by his stage name Johnny Knoxville, is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, stunt performer, best known for being the co-creator and principal star of the MTV reality series Jackass, with the catchphrase "I'm Johnny Knoxville, and welcome to Jackass."-Early...
L-P
- Lady GagaLady GaGaStefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
- Adam LambertAdam LambertAdam Mitchel Lambert is an American singer, songwriter, and actor from San Diego, California. In May 2009, he finished as the runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol...
- Mirtha LegrandMirtha LegrandRosa María Juana Martínez, better known by the stage name Mirtha Legrand is an Argentine actress and television personality and twin sister of the actress Silvia Legrand.-Early life:...
- Courtney LoveCourtney LoveCourtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
- Valeria LynchValeria Lynch-Biography:Valeria Lynch was born on January 7, 1952 in the neighborhood of Villa Urquiza, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Is the first child of the marriage of Maria Antonia Spano and José Julio Lancellotti....
- Ricky MartinRicky MartinEnrique "Ricky" Martín Morales , better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican and Spanish pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991.During his career he has sold more than 60 million album copies worldwide...
- MikaMikaMika may refer to:* Mika , a singer-songwriter based in London* FC MIKA, Armenian football team**Mika Stadium-Male given name :* Mika Aaltonen , Finnish football player...
- Reba McEntireReba McEntireReba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
- McFlyMcFlyMcFly are an English pop rock band who first found fame in 2004. The band consists of Tom Fletcher , Danny Jones , Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd . They were signed to the Island Records label from their 2004 launch until December 2007, before creating their own label, Super Records...
- George MichaelGeorge MichaelGeorge Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
- Dannii MinogueDannii MinogueDanielle Jane "Dannii" Minogue is an Australian singer-songwriter, actress, television personality, radio personality, fashion designer and model...
- Kylie MinogueKylie MinogueKylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
- MorrisseyMorrisseySteven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
- Nicole RichieNicole RichieNicole Camille Richie is an American fashion designer, author, actress, singer and television personality. Her father was Peter Michael Escovedo, a musician who played for a brief time with Lionel Richie, and her mother Karen was the executive assistant for Sheila Escovedo...
- Joan RiversJoan RiversJoan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
- Mónica NaranjoMonica NaranjoMónica Naranjo Carrasco is a Spanish singer born in Figueras, a village in Spain to Andalusian parents. She has sold over 8 million albums worldwide.- Biography :...
- Stevie NicksStevie NicksStephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
- Yoko OnoYoko Onois a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
- Edith PiafÉdith PiafÉdith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
- Sarah Jessica ParkerSarah Jessica ParkerSarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
- Dolly PartonDolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
- PeachesPeaches (musician)Merrill Beth Nisker , better known by her stage name Peaches, is a Canadian electronic musician and performance artist who lives in Berlin, Germany. Her songs are noted for disregarding traditional gender norms and their use of sexually explicit lyrics...
- Anne PigalleAnne PigalleAnne Pigalle is a singer and multimedia artist .-Biography:She grew up in Paris, moved to London, and has performed all over the world, including Europe, Japan, America, Mexico, Timbuktu in Africa.In 1985, she released the album Everything Could Be So Perfect with Trevor Horn on ZTT Records, and...
- P!nkP!nkAlecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....
- Ellen PompeoEllen PompeoEllen Kathleen Pompeo is an American actress, known for playing the title role of Meredith Grey on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy.-Early life:...
- PrincePrince (musician)Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
Q-U
- Sara RamírezSara RamírezSara Ramírez is a Mexican-American singer/songwriter and actress. She is known for her role as Callie Torres in Grey's Anatomy and as the original Lady of the Lake in the 2005 Broadway musical Spamalot, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.-Early life:Ramírez...
- RobynRobynRobin Miriam Carlsson , better known by her stage name Robyn, is a Swedish recording artist, singer, and songwriter. Robyn became known in the late nineties for her worldwide dance-pop hit "Do You Know " from her debut album Robyn Is Here . She co-wrote the song "Du gör mig hel igen" for...
- Isabella RosselliniIsabella RosselliniIsabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini is an Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model. Rossellini is noted for her 14-year tenure as a Lancôme model, and for her roles in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her.-Background and early life:Rossellini is a...
- Paulina RubioPaulina RubioPaulina Susana Rubio Rue is a Mexican singer and actress. Rubio achieved international stardom with her fifth studio album, Paulina...
- RuPaulRuPaulRuPaul Andre Charles , best known as simply RuPaul, is an American actor, drag queen, model, author, and singer-songwriter, who first became widely known in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. Previously, he was a fixture on the Atlanta...
- Pet Shop BoysPet Shop BoysPet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....
- Kate RyanKate RyanKate Ryan is a Belgian World Music Award winner. She began her singing career in 2001 and later found fame with a string of dance hits. These included covers, mostly of Mylène Farmer and France Gall, such as "Désenchantée", "Libertine" and "Ella, elle l'a" as well as new material...
- Chloë SevignyChloë SevignyChloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
- ShakiraShakiraShakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...
- Mary J. BligeMary J. BligeMary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...
- Britney SpearsBritney SpearsBritney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
- Tori SpellingTori SpellingVictoria Davey "Tori" Spelling is an American actress. Spelling became known in the early 1990s for her role as Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210. Spelling then had roles in a string of made-for-television films, such as A Friend to Die For and Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?...
- Spice GirlsSpice GirlsThe Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
- Gwen StefaniGwen StefaniGwen Renée Stefani is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was inspired by music of the 1980s, and was a success with sales of over...
- Howard SternHoward SternHoward Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
- Mink StoleMink StoleNancy Paine Stoll better known by the stage name Mink Stole, is an American actress from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her career working for director John Waters, having appeared in all of his feature films to date...
- Barbra StreisandBarbra StreisandBarbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
- George TakeiGeorge TakeiGeorge Hosato Takei Altman is an American actor, author, social activist and former civil politician. He is best known for his role in the television series Star Trek and its film spinoffs, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the...
- ThalíaThalíaAriadna Thalía Sodi Miranda , known simply by the mononym Thalía , is a Mexican singer and actress. She has sold over 40 million albums worldwide...
- Gloria TreviGloria TreviGloria Trevi is a Mexican pop-rock singer-songwriter. She was described as the "Supreme Diva of the Mexican Pop" by the music channel VH1 and sold over 20 million records.-Biography:...
- Justin TimberlakeJustin TimberlakeJustin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...
V-Z
- Vice GandaVice GandaVice Ganda is a Filipino comedian, host, actor and recording artist. He is a regular host/judge on ABS-CBN’s talent show Showtime and starred on his two films, one of which considered as the highest-grossing film in Philippine cinema....
(Filipino Gay Comedian) - Village PeopleVillage PeopleVillage People is a concept disco group that formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics....
- Rufus WainwrightRufus WainwrightRufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...
- Hande YenerHande YenerHande Yener is a Turkish pop singer. Over the past decade, she has introduced different styles to the ever expanding Turkish pop music scenery. Each one of her albums has generated a lot of interest as well as anticipation due to the different styles, genres and rhythms that she incorporates into...
In sports
Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean KingBillie Jean King
Billie Jean King is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. King has been an advocate against sexism in sports and society...
, Ben Cohen, David Beckham
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
and Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, OIH, , commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portuguese national team...
are seen as gay icons.
In politics
George Moscone
George Richard Moscone was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California, US from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as...
, Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, Winnie Mandela, Hillary Clinton, Eva Peron
Eva Perón
María Eva Duarte de Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She is often referred to as simply Eva Perón, or by the affectionate Spanish language diminutive Evita.She was born in the village of Los Toldos in...
, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...
, Imelda Marcos
Imelda Marcos
Imelda R. Marcos is a Filipino politician and widow of 10th Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Upon the ascension of her husband to political power, she held various positions to the government until 1986...
and Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir , , is the Prime Minister of Iceland. Many years a politician, she was previously Iceland's Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security from 1987–1994 and 2007–2009. She has been a member of the Althing for Reykjavík constituencies since 1978, winning re-election on eight...
, the world's first openly bisexual head of government
Head of government
Head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...
of the modern era. Roger Casement
Roger Casement
Roger David Casement —Sir Roger Casement CMG between 1911 and shortly before his execution for treason, when he was stripped of his British honours—was an Irish patriot, poet, revolutionary, and nationalist....
, an Irish civil rights activist, became a gay icon of the early 20th century. Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King was held in high regard among members of the gay community for her involvement in the Gay Rights Movement. During her lifetime, she routinely equated the goals of the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, led by her husband Martin Luther King Jr., with the that of LGBT activism.
San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
was the first openly gay man to be elected to office in the U.S. and spearheaded the defeat of statewide anti-gay ballot measure Proposition 6 in California in 1978. While he and Moscone were assassinated shortly thereafter, both became viewed as something of martyrs for gay rights. Milk's image as a positive role model led to him becoming the namesake for the first high school primarily for gay teenagers, the Harvey Milk High School
Harvey Milk High School
Harvey Milk High School is a public high school in the East Village of New York City designed for, though not limited to, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender young people, as well as those questioning their sexuality...
. The portrayal of those efforts in the critically acclaimed film Milk
Milk (film)
Milk is a 2008 American biographical film on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
earned Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
an Oscar
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
and comparisons to the contemporary battle over the anti-gay ballot initiative Proposition 8
California Proposition 8 (2008)
Proposition 8 was a ballot proposition and constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections...
raging in California at the time of its release in 2008.
While most of these individuals have been lionized for their strength, style, compassion, or work for equal rights, an ironic icon is Anita Bryant
Anita Bryant
Anita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and gay rights opponent. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5...
, who worked to oppose homosexuality. During the 1970s, Bryant led a national campaign, "Save Our Children", which conflated homosexuality and child molestation and insisted that because homosexuals cannot reproduce they must "recruit" or "convert" people to their lifestyle. California State Senator John V. Briggs applauded Bryant's work as a "national, religious crusade [and] courageous stand to protect American children from blatant homosexuality". However, as Bruce C. Steele of The Advocate documented, Bryant's crusade against the Gay Rights Movement had made her synonymous with it.
According to John Coppola, exhibit curator and former head of exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington, D.C., "In a completely unintended way, Anita Bryant was about the best thing to happen to the gay rights movement...She and her cohorts were so over the top that it just completely galvanized the gay rights movement". The 30th anniversary of Bryant's campaign against LGBT rights has been commemorated at the Stonewall Library & Archives
Stonewall Library & Archives
The Stonewall Library & Archives DBA as Stonewall Library Museum Archive is a privately-operated library in Fort Lauderdale, Florida which focuses on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender cultural and historical documents and publications...
, with executive director Jack Rutland dubbing her "The Mother of Gay Rights".
Fictional examples
Various fictional characters have been regarded as gay icons, including cartoon figures. Bugs BunnyBugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
, a fictional anthropomorphic rabbit appearing in animation by Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the in-house division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical...
during the Golden Age of American animation
The Golden Age of American animation
The Golden Age of U.S. animation is a period in the United States animation history that began with the advent of sound cartoons in 1928 and continued into the early 1960s when theatrical animated shorts slowly began losing to the new medium of television animation.Many memorable characters emerged...
—dubbed the greatest cartoon character of all time by TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
—has been declared a "queer cultural icon [and] parodic diva" due to his "cross-dressing antics" and camp appeal. Cartoon characters SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants (character)
SpongeBob SquarePants is a main fictional character in the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. He is voiced by Tom Kenny and first appeared on television in the series' pilot episode "Help Wanted" on May 1, 1999. SpongeBob was created and designed by cartoonist Stephen Hillenburg...
and Patrick Star
Patrick Star
Patrick Star is the deuteragonist of the Nickelodeon animated comedy series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by creator Stephen Hillenburg and voiced by Bill Fagerbakke. Patrick's most significant character trait is his lack of common sense, which sometimes makes him a negative influence on his best...
have additionally become gay icons, due to their sometimes double entendre dialogues in their (cult) TV cartoon show. Winnie the Pooh has also affinity in the gay atmosphere and it has gained admiration as well as SpongeBob SquarePants, since it has been mentioned some reasons of this affiliation; the most common is that almost complete exclusion of female characters (the only female character Kanga is a kind, motherly figure on the story) and the male friendships are kind, caring, emotionally deep, tolerant, supportive, and inclusive.
The term has also extended to comic book characters. Homosexual interpretations of Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and the original Robin
Robin (comics)
Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
, Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940....
, have been an interest in cultural and academic study, due primarily to psychologist Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham
Fredric Wertham was a Jewish German-American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of violent imagery in mass media and comic books on the development of children. His best-known book was Seduction of the Innocent , which purported that comic books are...
's Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent
Seduction of the Innocent is a book by German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was a minor bestseller that created alarm in parents and galvanized...
(1954). In the mid-1950s, Werthman led a national campaign against comic books, convincing Americans that they were responsible for corrupting children and encouraging them to engage in acts of sex and violence. In relation to Batman and Robin, Wertham asserted "the Batman type of story helps to fixate homoerotic tendencies by suggesting the form of an adolescent-with-adult or Ganymede-Zeus type of love-relationship". In Containing America: Cultural Production and Consumption in Fifties America, authors Nathan Abrams and Julie Hughes point out that homosexual interpretations of Batman and Robin existed prior to Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent. Wertham claimed his book was, in fact, prompted by the earlier research of a Californian psychiatrist. The relationship between Batman and arch villain The Joker has also been interpreted by many as homoerotic. Frank Miller
Frank Miller (comics)
Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...
, author of The Dark Knight Returns, has described the relationship between Batman and the Joker as a "homophobic nightmare," and views the character as sublimating his sexual urges into crime fighting, concluding, "He'd be much healthier if he were gay."
One of the TV series that appeals most to LGBT culture is the 1960s sitcom Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
. Aside from the campy characterizations, it contained three gay cast members (Dick Sargent
Dick Sargent
Richard Stanford Cox , known professionally as Dick Sargent, was an American actor, notable as the second actor to portray Darrin Stephens on the television series Bewitched...
, Paul Lynde
Paul Lynde
Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian and actor. A noted character actor, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry MacAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie...
and – allegedly – Agnes Morehead). Star Elizabeth Montgomery
Elizabeth Montgomery
Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery was an American film and television actress whose career spanned five decades. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, as Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape and as Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden.-Early life:Born in Los...
and Sargent were grand marshals of a Los Angeles gay pride parade
Gay pride parade
Pride parades for the LGBT community are events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage...
in the early 1990s. Other examples are the supernatural drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in which one of the female characters came out and began a lesbian relationship) and All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
s Bianca Montgomery
Bianca Montgomery
Bianca Christine Montgomery is a fictional character from the American daytime drama All My Children. In June 2010, Christina Bennett Lind replaced Eden Riegel, who portrayed the role from July 2000 to January 2010. Until Riegel assumed the role, the character was portrayed solely by child...
.
Responses
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
and Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
credited gay fans with keeping them going at times when their careers had faltered. Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
has acknowledged the perception of her as a gay icon and has performed at such events as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
The Sydney Mardi Gras is an annual LGBTQI pride parade and festival in Sydney, Australia, and draws in thousands of visitors from around Australia and overseas...
. Asked to explain the reason for her large gay fanbase, Minogue replied, "It's always difficult for me to give the definitive answer because I don't have it. My gay audience has been with me from the beginning... they kind of adopted me." She noted that she differed from many gay icons who were seen as tragic figures, with the comment, "I've had a lot of tragic hairdos and outfits. I think that makes up for it!"
Tammy Faye Messner, (ex-wife of fellow controversial televangelist Jim Bakker
Jim Bakker
James Orsen "Jim" Bakker is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program.A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry...
and mother of pastor Jay Bakker
Jay Bakker
Jamie Charles Bakker is an American Christian pastor and the son of Jim Bakker and the late Tammy Faye Bakker Messner. He ministers to Revolution Church, a church he founded in 1994 in Phoenix, Arizona with Kelli Miller and Mike Wall...
) who has been benevolently referred to as "the ultimate drag queen" — said in her last interview with Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
that, "When I went — when we lost everything, it was the gay people that came to my rescue, and I will always love them for that."
Others have been more ambivalent. Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, a gay icon from the early days of her career, supported gay rights but bristled when her performance style was referred to as camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
. Judy Garland gained iconic status in part by acknowledging gay fans' existence at a time when few would, but her attitude toward her gay following was ambiguous.
Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
has acknowledged and embraced her gay following throughout her career, she even made several references to the gay community in her songs or performances, and performed at several gay clubs. She has declared in interviews that some of her best friends are gay and that she adores gays and refers to herself as "the biggest gay icon of all times." She also has been quoted in television interviews in the early 1990s as declaring the "big problem in America at the time was homophobia."
Turkish electronic pop singer Hande Yener
Hande Yener
Hande Yener is a Turkish pop singer. Over the past decade, she has introduced different styles to the ever expanding Turkish pop music scenery. Each one of her albums has generated a lot of interest as well as anticipation due to the different styles, genres and rhythms that she incorporates into...
describes her relationship with the gay audience by stating that "there is a strong bond between us." She states that she tries new styles in her career and her stand against prejudices is best understood by gay audience. She also mentioned that she often goes to gay clubs. She starred as herself, a gay icon in a gay themed movie Kraliçe Fabrikada. She is one of the few Turkish singers who will perform in a gay club. She has participated to the İstanbul Gay Pride 2009.
See also
- LGBT cultureLGBT cultureLGBT culture, is the common culture shared by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. It is sometimes also referred to as Queer culture. The term gay culture, though not synonymous, is sometimes also used though this may also apply specifically to the culture of homosexual men.LGBT...
- New Queer CinemaNew Queer CinemaNew Queer Cinema is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in Sight & Sound magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s...
- Queer TheoryQueer theoryQueer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of LGBT studies and feminist studies. Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself...
- Cher as a gay icon
- Judy Garland as gay iconJudy Garland as gay iconActress Judy Garland is widely considered a gay icon; The Advocate has called Garland "The Elvis of homosexuals." The reasons frequently given for her standing as an icon among gay men are admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles seemed to mirror those of gay men in...
- Janet Jackson as gay iconJanet Jackson as gay iconJanet Jackson is an American singer-songwriter and actress, who is considered to be a gay icon. Jackson garnered a substantial gay following during 1990s as she gained prominence in popular music...
- Madonna as gay icon
External links
- GLBT Historical Society
- Gay men and women should just be themselves
- Christina up close
- Sophie Morris. From the tragic to the bland // New Statesman, August 1, 2005
- "Pink doesn't mean fluffy" John Howard. The Independent, (UK), August 4, 2005