Kamu Kirk denies making anti-drag comments on Big Brother

As controversy still swirls over homophobic comments he made inside the Big Brother house, Kamuela "Kamu" Kirk is now trying to turn away the allegations that he is anti-drag.

"I was never trying to attack the drag community," the MMA fighter told Page Six. "And I still don’t think that I actually did."

Kirk, 32, told the website that he "likes" his co-star, RuPaul's Drag Race star Jason De Puy (Salina EsTitties). He even told Entertainment Weekly following his elimination last week: "On a personal level, I love Jason."

As Out has reported, the two squabbled over strategy and shifting alliances early in season 28, but Kirk's comments about drag set off fireworks. "Bro, miss me with the drag stuff. Miss me. I’m still an MMA guy, and I have an image to uphold," he said to another competitor.

Fans and other Big Brother alums like Frankie Grande, blasted him for those disparaging remarks, which Kirk claims were taken out of context.

"When I made my comment, it was after I was asked several times to wear drag," he told Page Six.

"At one point in time, there were talks about there being a drag night at the house. And I respectfully said, ‘Hey guys, I’ll be an audience member.’ And then the day of the Tea Party when Drew and Barrett put their dresses on, multiple people asked me if I was going to also wear drag and I kept saying like, ‘No, no, no. I wanna be able to dress how I feel comfortable.'"

Kirk also blamed selective editing by CBS for the controversy.

"After being asked several times, I told [Rick] Devens like, ‘Dude, like I just don’t wanna wear drag. I wanna able to wear what I feel is comfortable to me.’ And that was what ended up making the episode."

In the interview, he also insisted his comments were “never any attack against the [drag] community” or De Puy, who was evicted when Kirk was Head of Household during Week 3 of the reality show.

“I just simply wanted people in the house to respect how I wanted to dress,” he said. “It truly isn’t anything beyond that.”

But Kirk is still being kicked by angry drag fans on his Instagram posts, with one calling him a "Bro + Nazi:" "Admit and apologize Brozi," wrote David Keever.

Other fans have pointed out that what Kirk said is analogous to anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric that claims the queer community tries to indoctrinate other people and force them to “dress a certain way."

"Tell me you’re not comfortable with drag without telling me you’re not comfortable with drag," someone commented on a video clip from the interview posted to X (formerly Twitter).

Another person wrote, "notice at no point in that response did he say 'I support drag performers' or 'I support the trans community' - this was, at best, a punt. BYE KAMU!"

Someone else commented, "no one has ever pressured him to dress in women’s clothes….in his life." In fact, Kirk chose to wear a blue leotard and tutu during a themed Power of Veto competition on the reality show. "The guys at home are going to make so much fun of me for this," he said at the time.

Once De Puy was eliminated from the show, the Drag Race alum told Out that watching the episodes and live feeds from the Big Brother house proved his intuition about Kirk was correct.

"Queen Kamu! What he did to me in the tea party felt personal. To learn outside the house he was saying these things and that it wasn't necessarily about the game... I was like, 'Okay. I'm not crazy.' That's what felt more validating for me," De Puy said.

Kirk revealed to Page Six he's still waiting to hear back from De Puy, whom he said he contacted after leaving the house last Thursday.

"Maybe he just hasn’t seen it, or maybe he’s just not ready to talk," Kirk said. "And that’s cool too."

So what did Kirk say to De Puy?

"I messaged him and I said, ‘Hey man, I saw 'Queen Kamu' and I’m honored,'" he revealed to Page Six. "So I do hope that I hear back from him at some point and we can put all this behind us, but I wish him nothing but the best truly."

Kirk wants fans to know he targeted De Puy for “game” reasons, and not because of who he is.

“Even before our games clashed, we actually had a really good relationship,” he said. “We had a good friendship in the house.”