Princess Diana ‘was not a gay icon'
But Princess Diana might not have actually been as popular with the gay community as first thought.
According to author Edward White, a survey carried out after her death in 1997 found that many gay and lesbian people were 'insulted' by the former Princess of Wales's association with them.
Speaking to the History Extra podcast, Mr White said: 'Diana was kind of embraced, I think, by a lot of gay people as being kind of an ally or an icon.
'There's an absolutely fascinating resource that I drew on that's called the National Lesbian and Gay Survey.
'After Diana's death, they asked their respondents to write in and give their take on Diana's death and how they felt and what they felt it meant to gay people.'
He added: 'Some people were absolutely horrified that Diana should be considered to be an important person in gay life at all, because she's this ultra-privileged ... She's basically a poster girl for heteronormative couples.
'You can't get straighter than Princess Diana.'
Diana advocated for HIV awareness and in 1987 she broke new ground by publicly shaking hands with gay men with Aids. She also opened the first purpose-built unit for HIV and Aids at the London Middlesex Hospital.
Talking about his book Dianaworld: An Obsession, Mr White said Diana's 1995 Panorama interview saw her become associated with the gay community
He said: 'It kind of has a parallel to other sorts of interviews of the time such as George Michael's one, which is essentially like Diana doing a coming-out interview in the Panorama in 1995 as much as it is a kind of a whistleblowing interview.'
Mr White said there were also respondents on the survey that held the positive view of Princess Diana that has continued to this day.
He continued: 'Other people at the same time felt like she was, you know, their most important ally and that she took the discrimination that gay people faced as part of their daily lives and she did an awful lot to kind of combat it.
'And not just because of her involvement with the HIV issue, but because she was known to be friends with gay people and she was seen to be a great ally.
'Other people that wrote into this survey, they suggested that what was great about her is that she actually cut across all of these kinds of identities and that everybody could kind of find their own Diana, whether you were gay, straight or anything else.'
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