Madonna as a gay icon

Madonna has consistently been an advocate for the LGBT community throughout her career, being recognized by GLAAD Media Awards in 1991 (Raising Gay Awareness) and 2019 (Advocate for Change). Madonna's works often use gay culture as a symbolic repertoire. In an era not dominated by the massification of Internet, she served as a mainstream vehicle, being tagged as "the first major mainstream artist to give gay images and themes explicit mass treatment and exposure".


Madonna has been recognized as a "pioneering ally" by academic and press accounts from outlets such as The New York Times and Associated Press (AP), after a special emphasis in the AIDS crisis when the community was substantially stigmatized and she was one of the very first artists to advocate for the cause, according to publications like The Hollywood Reporter. Using her popularity, she became "the first worldwide celebrity" of that era to do an interview with a national gay magazine, The Advocate, according to themselves. Critic Stephen Holden labeled her interview with them as an "unprecedented frankness for a major star". Sarah Kate Ellis, president of GLAAD stated in 2019: "Madonna always has and always will be the LGBTQ community's greatest ally".^[1] Madonna has been considered by "many" over the years as the "greatest gay icon", a statement seconded or confirmed by outlets such as The Advocate or Parade^[2][3] among others.


Madonna's influence impacted generations of LGBT people, as documented diverse authors. Over the years, she has also been credited variously, for her role in bringing gay culture into the mainstream. However, Madonna also represented challenged views, both inside and outside the community, and has been accused of "appropriation". She also met backlash from diverse sectors, including religious. In 2012, she was sued in Russia for her support amid the gay propaganda law.

Friendship and introduction[edit]

Madonna was introduced to the gay community while still a teenager. It was her ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, a gay man, who first told Madonna that she had something to offer the world. He also introduced her to the local gay community of Detroit, Michigan, often taking her to local gay bars and discotheques. Observing Flynn she was "conscious of understanding that there was such a thing as gay ... It wasn't called that then. I just came to understand that he was attracted to men".^[4] Biographer Carol Gnojewski, wrote "some Madonna devotees tout Christopher Flynn as 'arguably the first Madonna-positive person'".^[5]


After moving to New York City in the 1970s to pursue a career in modern dance, Madonna would be surrounded by gay men, including art-world figures such as the plastic artist Keith Haring.^[4] Her immersion into the New York gay community became so complete that she began to wish that she were gay: "I didn't feel like straight men understood me. They just wanted to have sex with me. Gay men understood me, and I felt comfortable around them".^[4]


Christopher Glazek explains: "Madonna has been intimately connected to a wide community of gay men for decades, as an artistic collaborator, as a political ally, as an employer, as a friend, and as a sister".^[4] Some examples include her first book Sex when collaborated with a gay photographer, and included gay models.^[6] At some stage of her career, she repeated in interviews that her best friends are gay.^[7] After David Collins's death, Madonna penned a letter describing his influence on her life.^[8] By the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, media "romantically linked" her name with various women, including Sandra Bernhard, Ingrid Casares, and model Jenny Shimizu,^[9] nor confirmed or denied by Madonna. In 1991, Madonna told to The Advocate that she believed "everybody has a bisexual nature".^[10]