Gay icon Kensington of AIDS-related illnesses (bronchial pneumonia). Artists particularly embraced by the gay community during the 1980s included Whitney Houston, Patti Labelle, Alaska, Charo, Dolly Parton, Elaine Paige, Amanda Lear, Prince and Mylène Farmer. Several Britons were seen as gay icons, including singers Boy George, David Bowie, George Michael, Morrissey, Pet Shop Boys, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, and writer Quentin Crisp. Elton John also became a gay icon during this decade, a status strengthened throughout the years. Diana Ross, a long time gay icon, of The Supremes; released a song I'm Coming Out which brought a significance to the phrase of
Gay icon 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, Dorothy Gale 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 meets 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"