David Bowie (1947-2016)

David Bowie was a British rock musician and cultural icon whose long career was defined by constant reinvention, androgyny, and treating identity as something fluid and performed. His alter ego Ziggy Stardust, introduced in 1972, fused glam rock, science fiction, and gender ambiguity in a way that gave many young people, queer youth especially, permission to imagine themselves differently. That same year he told Melody Maker he was gay, a striking public statement for the time. He later described himself as bisexual, and in a 1983 interview called those declarations the biggest mistake he ever made, a shift that reflected the commercial and personal pressures of the era. However he defined himself, his impact on LGBTQ+ culture, drag, and queer aesthetics remains vast.