Musical icon Tina Turner dies at age 83

Tina Turner concern, 2009
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Beloved rock and roll icon Tina Turner died in her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland at the age of 83 after a long illness. She was beloved by LGBTQ+ music fans for overcoming a misogynist music industry and her abusive husband to achieve a rock career that included hit songs, iconic styles, national accolades, and performances in TV and film.

She also had the distinction of performing at the opening ceremonies of the first ever Gay Games in San Francisco in 1982. She also spoke out for people living with HIV at a time when it was still considered quite risky for an artists’s career.

Born to a sharecropper family in Brownsville, Tennessee in 1939 under the name Anna Mae Bullock, she sang in a church choir and lived with her religious paternal grandparents throughout her childhood. Her mom unexpectedly left the family to flee her abusive relationship with her husband.

In high school, Turner said she was a bit of a…

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