System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan blasted actress Charlize Theron on social media on April 20, 2026, calling for her to be in “an asylum or jail.” Essentially, he fell into the buzzword-laden trap of online misinformation.
The response came following an Instagram post featuring a quote about gender identity incorrectly attributed to Theron. It was originally shared by conservative TV show host David Harris Jr.
Dolmayan reposted the graphic in a since-expired Instagram Story, which was preserved courtesy of The PRP. The misattributed quote was actually from actress Marcia Gay Harden. She said it during the 2023 Drag Isn’t Dangerous online telethon. Theron was also a guest during the telethon, which is possibly where the confusion happened.
“What drives me is this: my children are all queer,” said Harden. “My eldest child is non-binary. My son is gay, my youngest child is fluid.” The graphic, which Dolmayan shared on April 20, 2026, included this quote under an image of Charlize Theron.
Charlize Theron Was Recently Misquoted, But She is Still an Advocate for the Queer Community
In response, Dolmayan wrote, “This woman should be in an asylum or jail. These children are being mentally abused, statistically impossible.” It would do Dolmayan good to perhaps remember that not everything on the internet is the absolute truth. Misinformation is a powerful drug for people with a particular set of views, let’s say.
Meanwhile, both Marcia Gay Harden and Charlize Theron are avid LGBTQ advocates. They also share the experience of being parents to children in the LGBTQ community. Theron, meanwhile, has two adopted children. In 2019, she shared that her daughter Jackson told her she was “not a boy” at three years old.
“I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive,” Theron said at the time. “They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be is not for me to decide.”
“My job as a parent is to celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be,” she continued. “And I will do everything in my power for my kids to have that right and to be protected within that.”
System of a Down’s John Dolmayan Often at Odds with Serj Tankian Over Politics
Meanwhile, System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian has often found himself at odds with his drummer (and brother-in-law). Tankian stated in a 2020 Instagram post that he has “love and respect” for Dolmayan. This comes “irrespective of our extremely polarized political commentary.”
“Remember, irrespective of the stance, only artists that truly care and are impassioned will risk alienating their base for what they consider the truth,” he added. “Our dilemma and possible fallacy is that we have two in one band. Some may consider that a weakness, but the artistic, political, and social dichotomy, if not quadrichotomy (not a word), has made [System of a Down] what it is today.”
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