7 Celebrities Who Completely Shut Down LGBTQ+ Prejudice in Interviews

We stan allies who speak up!

Let’s keep it real – there’s a lot of LGBTQ+ prejudice out there. From homophobia to biphobia to transphobia, a lot of people spend time and energy disregarding and disrespecting the sexual orientation and gender identities of others.

Thankfully, a few famous allies have used their platform to support the queer community, raise important issues, and call onto others to stop with their LGBTQ+ discrimination. While it is pretty common nowadays for celebrities to be LGBTQ+ allies, that hasn’t always been the case. For certain celebs, it took a lot of courage for them to side with queer people during times when it was frowned upon to defend anything that had to do with a non-straight identity.

It wasn’t that long ago that talking about HIV was completely taboo, that trans people had quite literally zero visibility in mainstream media, and that same-sex marriage was still up for debate. As a result, most LGBTQ+ artists either had to stay in the closet for as long as possible or their careers would be ruined. Given that queer people had such limited visibility, it was up to straight allies to speak on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community in order to normalize conversations about gender identity and sexual orientation.

Standing up for queer people was particularly tough when interviewers clearly had an anti-LGBTQ+ stance based on the questions they were asking, but certain celebrities didn’t back down from defending the queer community when it mattered the most.

Scroll through to watch celebrity allies shutting down LGBTQ+ discrimination during interviews.

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Madonna addressing the HIV pandemic and preaching about sex education.

Jay-Z declaring that opposition to same-sex marriage is discrimination, plain and simple.

Paul McCartney explaining that some boys like other boys.

Naomi Campbell: “I wouldn’t be a model if it wasn’t for gay men. I wouldn’t even exist.”

Louis Tomlinson defending gay fans and getting annoyed at an interviewer.

Kanye West asking other rappers to stop being homophobic.

Prince William: “No one should be bullied for their sexuality.”