5 times David Bowie proved he was down with the cause

Legendary musician David Bowie died on Monday at age 69, after an 18-month battle with cancer.

The icon's name is trending on Twitter as the world celebrates his life and work. Although Bowie is best known for his art, his progressive stance on social issues also made him a pioneer among his peers. From being an out bisexual to calling out industry racism, here are five times Bowie was a true revolutionary: 

In 1983, Bowie was on a press tour for his album, Let’s Dance. The artist stopped by MTV and questioned interviewer Mark Goodman about the lack of black artists highlighted on the network.

“Why are there practically no blacks on the network?” Bowie asked Goodman.

“We seem to be doing music that fits into what we want to play on MTV. The company is thinking in terms of narrowcasting,” Goodman responded.

In 1982, David Bowie called out MTV on-air about the lack of music videos by black artists. #RIPDavidBowie pic.twitter.com/kjPgnf8ThV

— Alida (@honeynoir) January 11, 2016

Not to be deterred, Bowie continued, “There seem to be a lot of black artists making very good videos that I’m surprised aren’t being used on MTV.”

Soon after, MTV started airing Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” video.

The American Dialect Society recently named “they” as the most important word of 2015, after it came into popularity as a singular gender pronoun.

But long before this terminology was accepted, Bowie acknowledged that gender isn't binary.

When he took the stage to present the best female R&B performance award at the 1975 Grammys, Bowie greeted the crowd by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen and others.”

The audience laughed, but the rock star didn't.

We’re taught to associate certain items of clothing with a person’s gender, so challenging these norms can be considered "weird."

But Bowie didn’t care.

In 1971, a photographer from the Daily Mirror visited the singer at his Haddon Hall home and took pictures of him wearing an ankle-length floral dress, according to Mashable.

One of the photos was used on the cover of Bowie’s album, The Man Who Sold the World.

After the album was released, the singer faced criticism and violence for his wardrobe choice, saying, “In Texas, one guy pulled a gun and called me a fag. But I thought the dress looked beautiful.” 

Bowie revolutionized music and gender when he introduced his alter ego Ziggy Stardust in the early '70s.

As Ziggy, Bowie wore tight-fitting clothing and bright wigs, and didn't identify as a specific gender. Additionally, Bowie envisioned his alter ego as an alien from outer space, who came to Earth to warn us of the world's end.

“The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources,” Bowie said in a 1974 interview with Rolling Stone.

Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock-and-roll band and the kids no longer want rock-and-roll. There's no electricity to play it. Ziggy's adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, 'cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. 'All the young dudes' is a song about this news. It is no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite.

Bowie performed as Ziggy multiple times, including this famous Top of the Pops appearance:

Bowie was married to supermodel Iman for more than 20 years but publicly identified as bisexual. The star openly discussed his sexuality, long before same-sex marriage became a hot-button issue.

“It’s true—I am a bisexual,” Bowie said in a 1976 interview with Playboy. “But I can’t deny that I’ve used that fact very well. I suppose it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Fun, too. We’ll talk all about it.”

Bowie left behind a legacy of revolutionary art and political awareness, and will surely be missed.