American singer-songwriter and actor Brian Warner, better known by his stage name Marilyn Manson, was BOTD in 1969. Born in Canton, Ohio, he had a difficult childhood, including molestation by a neighbour and homophobic bullying at school. His family moved to Florida in his teens, where he studied journalism. In 1989, he formed the band Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids with Scott Putesky. They quickly gained a cult following, blending heavy metal, punk, industrial and glam rock sounds, and becoming notorious for their shocking live performances, often featuring desecration of religious images, simulated sex acts and self-mutilation. In 1992 the band shortened its name to Marilyn Manson (an amalgam of actress and Marilyn Monroe and murderous cult leader Charles Manson), which Warner adopted as his permanent stage name. The band found mainstream success with an industrial rock cover of The Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams, and the bestselling 1996 album Antichrist Superstar, igniting controversy over their violent lyrics and disturbing music videos. Manson and the band became the target of right-wing politicians and religious conservatives throughout the 1990s, who accused them of promoting drugs, violence and satanism, and they were banned from performing in several US states. Further controversy followed in 1999 when the teenaged assassins of the Columbine High School shootings were photographed wearing Marilyn Manson t-shirts, igniting a national debate about censorship and freedom of expression. Manson rebutted media criticism in the band’s 2000 album Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), and an interview for Michael Moore’s documentary Bowling for Columbine. When asked by Moore what he would say to the students at Columbine, Manson replied: “I wouldn’t say a single word to them; I would listen to what they have to say, and that’s what no one did.” Manson made his acting debut in David Lynch‘s 1996 film Lost Highway, followed by cameos in the Michael Alig biopic Party Monster, an adaptation of JT LeRoy‘s novel The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things and TV series including Californication, Sons of Anarchy and American Gods. He had high-profile relationships with actresses Rose McGowan and Evan Rachel Wood and photographer Lindsay Usich, and was briefly married to burlesque performer Dita von Teese. He has also admitted in interviews to having non-penetrative sex with male fans, and claimed to have had surgery to remove two of his ribs so he could give himself oral sex. In 2021, Wood and five other women accused Manson of multiple counts of psychological and sexual abuse. He was promptly dropped by his record label and agent, and denied the allegations, counter-suing Wood for defamation. After a four-year police investigation, the charges were dismissed in 2025 due to lack of evidence. Now largely cancelled by the music industry and the press, he nonetheless earns Honorary SuperGay status for the relentless queerness of his work, his exploration of sexual taboos and support of marginalised sexual identities.