David Bowie, the rock legend who died after a battle with cancer in early January, has been named as one of the “2016 icons” being honored this month for LGBT History Month, a project of the gay-rights group the Equality Forum.
“Each day in October, a new LGBT Icon is featured with a video, bio, bibliography, downloadable images and other resources,” explains the group on its website.
Bowie, who has been said to have had a sexual relationship with Mick Jagger in the 1970s, is the honoree designated for Friday, Oct. 7.
Married twice, both times to women, Mr. Bowie was famous for a prodigious sexual appetite in his early career, both for men and women, and for his coy, sometimes contradictory statements about his sexuality to the media over the course of his career.
In 1972, Jones said in an interview he was “gay” and “always have been.” Four years later he told Playboy he was “bisexual” and quipped that “I’ve used that fact very well.” Seven years later, however, he said outing himself as bisexual was a “mistake” and added that he “was always a closet heterosexual.”
In previous years singer Billie Holiday (2014) and actor Cary Grant (2007) were posthumously designated as bisexual “icons” for October.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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