February 10 2026, 08:15 
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance may not have been the anti-ICE drag show MAGA world expected, but the Grammy-winning superstar made sure that the LGBTQ+ community was represented in his electric celebration of Puerto Rico and Latin joy during Sunday night’s big game.
The rapper — who did not perform in a dress, as some anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives believed he would — was joined by out Latin pop star Ricky Martin and bi musician Lady Gaga, who performed a version of her single “Die with a Smile” reworked as a salsa tune.
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Bunny also stocked his show with subtle nods to the LGBTQ+ community. Bisexual rapper Cardi B and vocal LGBTQ+ rights advocate Pedro Pascal were among the celebrity guests dancing on the show’s set. And at one point, the camera panned from several dancers rolling tires to two men dancing together beside a truck upon which Bunny was performing.
As the show drew to a close, a message appeared on the stadium’s jumbotron reading “The only thing stronger than hate is love,” while Bunny held a football emblazoned with the words “Together we are America” — a vision of the country that includes LGBTQ+ people.
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A steadfast LGBTQ+ ally throughout his career as well as a vocal critic of the current administration’s brutal immigration enforcement tactics, Bad Bunny became a lightning rod for the MAGA right after it was announced in September that he would headline this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the late anti-LGBTQ+ Christian nationalist activist Charlie Kirk, went so far as to produce an alternative halftime show, headlined by Kid Rock, while anti-LGBTQ+ Christian organization One Million Moms urged supporters to boycott Bad Bunny’s performance.
Among conservatives’ objections to Bunny — which included his decision not to perform in the U.S. on his current tour and the fact that he performs his music entirely in Spanish — was his occasionally gender-bending style. Last month, pop gossip site Radar published a post based on several anonymous “sources” who claimed that the Grammy-winner would “100 percent” wear a dress during his Super Bowl performance. (TMZ later reported that “production sources” had refuted the rumor, and Radar’s initial post appears to have since been taken down.)
In reality, when Bunny took the stage Sunday night, he wore a pair of off-white trousers along with what The Seattle Times described as a matching custom football jersey with the number 64 embroidered on the front and his name on the back.
Of course, that didn’t stop right-wingers from criticizing the performance, with many, including the president, suggesting it was “unamerican.”
As The Hill notes, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle weighed in on the performance, with Democrats largely praising the halftime show and Republicans criticizing it as “un-American.”
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World.”
MAGA activist Laura Loomer, meanwhile, suggested in an X post that the NFL should “Apologize to the American people.”
“There’s nothing American about any of this,” Loomer wrote, despite the fact that the show celebrated Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.
In response to such criticisms, social media users have been posting about past Super Bowl halftime show headliners U2, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Coldplay, Shakira, Rihanna, The Weeknd, and The Who, none of whom are American citizens, while Bad Bunny is.
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