Do we like Brian May?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decades of real campaigning for animals and a knighthood for music and charity, with one contested 2021 comment and a snappy 2019 reply he apologised for.
Sir Brian May is the Queen guitarist who also did a PhD in astrophysics, and that mix of rock star and science nerd has always been his thing. King Charles knighted him in March 2023 for services to music and charity. On the day he said he was probably most proud of the tiny things he has achieved for animals.
The latest noise is about touring. After an interview with The Times, headlines said he was done with the road, and he was quoted saying maybe 50 years is enough. He then posted that he'd been misread: he has taken a break, never said Queen won't tour again, and he and Roger Taylor are still working on projects.
The trans comment is the main thing on his harm record. In November 2021 he criticised the BRIT Awards for dropping gendered categories and said a new Queen would be pushed to include people of different colours, sexes and a trans person. Critics read that as unfriendly to trans people. He said a journalist twisted his words, said nothing could be further from the truth, and apologised to anyone hurt. It's one contested episode, not a campaign, and nothing on trans rights from him since turned up.
In 2019 a fan asked him to unfollow Bohemian Rhapsody director Bryan Singer after new allegations against Singer were reported. May snapped back that people are innocent until proven guilty. After the backlash he apologised, said he had followed Singer only because they'd worked together on a project, and unfollowed him. An apology isn't a free pass, but it was a one-off, and no later repeat turned up.
Animals are where he puts his energy and his name. He has campaigned against the badger cull for over a decade, and in 2024 he said animal welfare groups were disappointed by Labour's stance on it. Farmers argue the cull is needed to fight TB in cattle, so this is a real stoush, not a one-sided one.
That fight spilled into this year's headlines. In January he told the Daily Mail that Queen won't play Glastonbury while its organisers back culling, saying they “like killing badgers”. Michael Eavis had earlier called him a danger to farming. It's a feud over animals, not a harm to people.