Do we like them?

Do we like Oprah Winfrey?

Our score: 8 out of 10. A long, public run of backing LGBTQ+ people and real giving, marked down for a recent dispute and for gaps this check couldn't close.

On the harm test, Oprah has a long record of standing with LGBTQ+ people, and it started when it cost something. In a 1997 clip, after an audience member objected to her interviewing Ellen DeGeneres about coming out, she said she backed Ellen's right to be who she is.

That didn't fade with time. In a 2023 graduation speech she told students that LGBTQ+ people were under attack, which is a far cry from a star going quiet when the culture war heats up.

The freshest stoush is about Whitney Houston. At Cannes Lions in June 2026, Oprah recalled Houston falling off stage during a 2009 appearance and suggested drugs were behind it. Houston's estate hit back, saying the fall happened in a dark area and that Houston was not high.

The estate acknowledged the fall but said it is unfair to tie every chapter of Houston's life to her struggles. Oprah hadn't answered publicly in the coverage I found, so this stays a dispute over one story, not a verdict on her character. Telling a dead friend's story in a way her family rejects is still a poor look.

On the good-person side, there's an older legal footnote. A former headmistress of Oprah's South African girls' school sued her, and the case settled just before trial in 2010. A joint statement said the dispute had ended peacefully, and the terms weren't made public. A single settled suit is not a pattern of mistreating people.

The real good is easy to find. After the 2023 Maui wildfires she and Dwayne Johnson set up the People's Fund of Maui with $10 million to go straight to displaced residents. That's a practical use of a big platform for other people.