There are many ways to be gay in 2026. You can serve face, serve brunch, serve a devastating read — or, apparently, serve political commentary with absolutely no intention of keeping it cute.
RELATED: Gay Politicians Are Making History—the World Is Finally Catching Up!
This week, Boy George, Pete Buttigieg, and Rosie O’Donnell offered three very different demonstrations of what happens when famous queer people decide they have something to say. One made a claim about Dua Lipa that quickly fell apart. One refused to be dragged into a Democratic family feud. And one is preparing to sit behind Jimmy Kimmel’s desk with the apparent intention of making the FCC sweat.
So, gays, it’s time to pick your fighter.
1. Boy George: When the receipts don’t receipt
Boy George has stirred up further controversy amid the release of his pro-Israel song, We Will Dance Again, by falsely claiming that Dua Lipa made inflammatory comments about Israel.
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In a now-deleted post on X on August 6, the Culture Club frontman wrote:
“Why is [Dua Lipa] allowed to say ‘Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth’ and I get abuse for defending my Jewish friends?”
When an X user asked Boy George for his source, he shared screenshots featuring images of Dua Lipa alongside text claiming that she had said, “As long as Israel continues to exist on Earth there will be no peace.” The problem? There is no credible source verifying that Dua Lipa made either statement.
Dua Lipa has previously spoken in support of Palestinian rights, but that is very different from attributing a specific inflammatory quote to her without reliable evidence. The internet may love a dramatic screenshot, but screenshots are not exactly the Pulitzer Prize of journalism.
And considering this particular screenshot was being used to defend a controversial song, perhaps a quick fact-check would have been useful before pressing “post.”
“You say genocide, I say war”
Boy George’s latest controversy comes amid the release of “We Will Dance Again,” a reggae song released July 26 that addresses the Israel-Hamas war and the backlash he has received over his position.
In Buddhism we understand that every action comes with a consequence. Due to my decision to stand up for my Jewish friends I am losing a few people from my life. Today I parted company with Tony Pontius who has run my record label BGP for a number of years. I wanted to release… pic.twitter.com/jOArrkCktF
— Boy George (@BoyGeorge) July 31, 2026
Boy George later confirmed on Threads: “The song was created using AI,” adding, “I call it ‘AI for good’. Truthfully, I would struggle to write this with a human!”
The AI confession certainly adds another layer to an already complicated saga. But if you’re going to drag Dua Lipa into the conversation, at least bring the receipts.
2. Pete Buttigieg: The gay Democrat who wouldn’t take the bait
Meanwhile, Pete Buttigieg was presented with a much more familiar Washington pastime: getting one Democrat to say something juicy about another Democrat. During a wide-ranging interview with Politico columnist Jonathan Martin, Buttigieg was pressed about Kamala Harris and whether Democrats should consider her again as a presidential nominee in 2028.
The conversation eventually turned to Harris’ memoir, 107 Days, in which she wrote that Buttigieg would have been an ideal running mate — if he were straight, a particularly pointed detail for a gay politician whose sexuality has long been part of the conversation around his political career.
Harris wrote: “I couldn’t pick him, the country wasn’t ready for that. If I was a white guy or he was straight I would have done it but I wasn’t.”
Martin then tried to turn the moment into a little political bloodsport, telling Buttigieg that Harris had “thrown an elbow” at him without giving him a heads-up. Buttigieg acknowledged what happened. He simply refused to make it bigger than it was.
Martin: “I think you’re being nice and polite to somebody [Harris] because you’re trying to be a good soldier, but I don’t totally get it because she used her book to throw an elbow at you and didn’t give you a heads up about it, I don’t think. You’re doing her a solid when she… pic.twitter.com/vo57dbVrlP
— lindsay 🙈🏳️🌈 (@virtueemoir29) August 4, 2026
“Look, this is about bigger things than, like, whether somebody gets their feelings hurt by a page in a book somewhere. Like, this is about the trajectory of Western civilization and what really matters.”
And honestly? Somewhere, every gay person who has ever been asked to pick sides in a friend-group argument just nodded. Harris’ comments were more complicated than a simple political swipe. She described Buttigieg as a friend and praised him as “a sincere public servant with the rare talent of being able to frame liberal arguments in a way that makes it possible for conservatives to hear them.”
She also wrote: “I love working with Pete.”
Buttigieg had previously said he was “surprised” by Harris’ account of their conversation and disagreed with her assessment that his sexuality made him too risky a choice.
“My experience in politics has been that the way that you earn trust with voters is based mostly on what they think you’re going to do for their lives, not on categories,” he said at the time.
So while Martin appeared ready for a little Democratic drama, the gay former mayor basically responded with the political equivalent of, I have a country to save, babe.
3. Rosie O’Donnell: The FCC can pry the microphone from her cold, gay hands
Then there’s Rosie O’Donnell, who is preparing to guest-host Jimmy Kimmel Live! and has made it very clear that nearly two decades of feuding with Donald Trump have not suddenly inspired her to become quiet.
O’Donnell will take over the ABC late-night show beginning Monday, August 17, and she told Kara Swisher on the On with Kara Swisher podcast that she has no intention of letting the FCC scare her into silence. When asked about FCC chairman Brendan Carr, who earlier this year opened a public inquiry into television shows featuring “gender identity” themes, O’Donnell responded:
“What are they gonna say, that you can’t say that?” O’Donnell asked rhetorically. “I don’t listen to them. I don’t pay any heed to them.”
That confidence apparently has one small caveat: ABC executives.
O’Donnell said the network stopped her from performing an anti-Trump parody of “If I Only Had a Brain” from The Wizard of Oz, telling her “they couldn’t get permission for the parody because it’s political content.”
She called the decision “absurd,” especially because she had performed the song on her own talk show years ago. Still, Rosie being Rosie, she went ahead and performed some of her rewritten lyrics on Swisher’s podcast anyway.
“His approval rate is 30, his diaper’s always dirty, I think the guy’s insane,” O’Donnell sang. “He ain’t no stable genius, got a teeny, tiny penis, and he doesn’t have a brain.”
And that was apparently just the warm-up. For her first night hosting, O’Donnell said she plans to perform a parody of “Hello, Dolly,” including:
“Hello, Donny, I know you’re watching, Donny, it’s me, Rosie, showing up on ABC.”
When Swisher noted that O’Donnell was “sexualizing the whole thing,” O’Donnell replied:
“That’s what I wanna do. He’s totally wanting of me.”
She then added: “You want to grab me, Donny, I want to stab thee, Donny.”
Somewhere in America, an ABC standards executive just developed a stress headache. O’Donnell’s upcoming hosting gig follows a question from out soccer icon Megan Rapinoe, who asked how she planned to handle Trump during her time behind Kimmel’s desk.
O’Donnell said she planned on “giving it to him in a comedic, honest, truthful, way,” while praising Kimmel for being “brave and bold” in his clashes with the president.
And really, that may be the theme tying these three stories together: everyone has something to say, but the execution matters.
Boy George apparently had a claim but not the evidence to back it up. Buttigieg had every opportunity to turn Harris’ book into a political grudge match and declined. Rosie O’Donnell, meanwhile, appears to be arriving at ABC with jokes, grudges, and just enough chaos to keep the FCC reaching for its blood-pressure medication.
Three gays. Three approaches. One extremely loud week. So, which one are you supporting?
Source: Politico, Politico (2)