Prince
It feels weird talking about Prince as a gay icon now but you have to applaud a black man in the American record industry who could be so playful with androgyny. Justin Timberlake wouldn't do that. He is a marine dressed as a pop star.

Source: http://blogs.guardian.co....icons.html
[Edited 3/29/07 9:54am]

'cos ain't nothing straighter than a bunch of buffed up guys couped up on a boat for months on end.

Great quote! Prince has always been daring in the way that he has played with sexual, gender and racial stereotypes. "If I Was Your Girlfriend", the cover to the SOTT single, and Camille are all brilliant avant-garde theatre in the face of conservative and puritan America. And he has always had a great tongue in cheek sense of humor about it all.

By the way, Rufus W. is a great songwriter and musician in his own right. Check out his second album, "Poses", there is a song with a definate Prince influence going on.

I've always wondered why there hasn't been a more vocal gay fanbase for P. Where is his Out magazine cover or awards?

jdcxc said:

Actually it's not Prince on the cover, but Cat

MikeMatronik said:

Exactly the point!! When it was released you were supposed to think that it was Prince in drag (Is that even possible?) hence the play with gender.

jdcxc said:

I think Prince is the real definition of GLAM. He became GLAM with his style.

What is stranger is that Prince has a huge gay fan base. But still he isn't seen as a gay icon.

jdcxc said:

I still can't believe people fell for that. I had people that bought it just so they could show it to me and call themselves busting up my Prince obsession. Like that would have worked even it was him!

SexyBeautifulOne said:

At that point in his career he was amazing at pushing buttons and getting attention. Today's artists are so boring. The only cultural statements they make are arrests.

jdcxc said:

Does anyone have a pic of this cover? I'd love to see it.

i loved how mayte would come up on the stage dressed up like prince
with the chain hat

and then prince dressed up as mayte for the "face down" video with
the hat and the veil and even her yorkshire on his lap. it wasn't
until the end of the video when he lifted the veil that you could
see it was in fact prince himself.

IstenSzek said:

I remember that happening at Wembley stadium and besides the heels giving everything away I also thought it was an indication of how un-subtle his play on gender had become.

He used to have much more of a gay following, but it's hardly suprising that he lost a lot of that given the statements of a couple of years back. Didn't put me off but then not much does

vivid said:

Being a member of a fundamentalist cult doesn't help the diversity cause but the statements that were attributed to him were never heard out of his mouth. He's always had gay musicians in his band, organization and life. It's too bad that his great cultural and social instincts have never translated into more political statements. But he is an artist not a politician.

Are there any other Rufus fans on the Org?