Findings
| When | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Madonna has a very well-documented history of publicly supporting LGBTQ+ people and addressing HIV/AIDS, particularly during the height of the AIDS crisis when doing so was still controversial. | Source | |
| 2019 | Madonna received GLAAD's Advocate for Change Award and spoke extensively about her relationship with the LGBTQ+ community and the influence of her gay ballet teacher. | Source |
| 1989 | Madonna has explicitly discussed "Like a Prayer" as a story about interracial love and racism, explaining that she deliberately wanted the work to address racism and bigotry. | Source |
| 2017 | Madonna explicitly described her politics as including equal rights and women's ownership of their sexuality and sexual expression. | Source |
| Madonna's involvement in Malawi has been marked by controversies surrounding her charity Raising Malawi, its early connection to the Kabbalah Centre, the management of its projects, and her adoptions of Malawian children. Raising Malawi was established with Kabbalah Centre figure Michael Berg and initially incorporated the Centre's Kabbalah-associated Spirituality for Kids program into its work with Malawian children. Its flagship $15 million girls' academy subsequently collapsed after an audit found that about $3.8 million had been spent without construction beginning, prompting the charity to replace its management and abandon the project. The Kabbalah Centre itself was simultaneously under an IRS investigation into its finances, although Madonna was not identified as a target of that investigation. Raising Malawi subsequently separated from the Centre and changed its approach, but its replacement school program generated another dispute with Malawian authorities over the nature and number of schools being claimed. Madonna's adoptions of David Banda and Mercy James also attracted criticism because she was permitted to adopt despite not satisfying Malawi's normal residency requirement for foreign applicants; Mercy's application was initially rejected before being overturned by the Supreme Court. The controversies culminated in a public dispute with the government of President Joyce Banda, whose office accused Madonna of exaggerating her charitable contribution and seeking preferential treatment, allegations she rejected. Some of the government's accusations were subsequently undermined by the revelation that Banda herself had not approved the statement. | Source | |
| 2006 | PETA criticized Madonna for wearing a large chinchilla fur coat. Madonna subsequently acknowledged that she had hunted birds and described stopping after shooting a bird that took a long time to die. | Source |
| 2015 | The "Rebel Heart" promotional images in which photographs of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bob Marley were altered with black straps over their faces. Critics characterized this as exploitative appropriation of Black historical imagery. | Source |
| 2014 | Madonna posted a photo of her 13-year-old son Rocco boxing and used a variation of the N-word in the caption. She initially responded to criticism by calling critics "haters", deleted the post, and subsequently apologized. She said she had intended the word as a term of endearment and acknowledged that there was "no way to defend" its use. | Source |
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