Queer Icon David Bowie Dies of Cancer

Rock legend, groundbreaking artist and LGBT icon David Bowie passed away January 10 from a long-battle with liver cancer at age 69. Bowie with a staggering five decades as a performer and a massive musical catalog, was also one of the first rock stars to bend gender roles and flaunt sexual fluidity. While his own sexuality leaned primarily to the straight side, Bowie’s relationships with men are well chronicled. His ex-wife Angie once claimed she found him in bed with Mick Jagger and the star himself told Playboy in 1976 that he was bisexual. But it was his androgynous image and refusal to be crammed in a societal box that opened the doors for artists like Lady Gaga, Boy George, Adam Lambert and Madonna. Mark Simpson, journalist and creator of the term “metrosexual” told the Daily Beast regarding Bowie,

“Bowie didn’t of course turn out to be the ‘Gay Elvis’ that many gay people hoped for but by flagrantly refusing to be restrained by ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ expectations and becoming a study in male beauty and glamour, he offered an inspiration to millions, whatever their gender or sexuality. Bowie was a prototype of metrosexuality—which is in many ways the 21st Century High Street, off-the-peg version of his 1970s experimentalism. Whatever the ‘truth’ of Bowie’s sexuality, he outed male bisensuality, big time. A priceless, liberating legacy—whatever your gender or sexuality.”