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 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 gay people mainstream and socially acceptable than any other development of the 20th century by providing decades of high-impact media visibility for sexual nonconformists. Fellow gay icon Ellen DeGeneres cast Winfrey to play the therapist she comes out of the closet to on the controversial episode of her