Yet another conservative exposed for hypocritical stance on LGBTQ issues

Right-wing extremists often claim to care about children, positioning themselves as the protectors of family values, while demonizing the LGBTQ+ community, teachers and anyone who advocates for the rights of marginalized people. However, the glaring hypocrisy of this so-called concern for children becomes undeniable when examined in light of the actions of these self-proclaimed freedom fighters. Their secret double lives beg the question of whether their obsession with same-sex relationships, transgender people and philandering behavior is little more than a projection of the insecurity they feel about their own identities, kinks and vices.

The recent scandal involving Corey DeAngelis, a well-known GOP advocate and regular contributor to Fox News promoting school choice and conservative family values, offers a clear example of this hypocrisy.

DeAngelis has spent years accusing teachers and schools of “sexualizing children” and promoting smut in the classroom. In the vast majority of the cases, the teachers did little more than acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ partners, parents and children, and try to create spaces where children of all backgrounds and identities could feel safe, welcomed and accepted. Despite DeAngelis’ accusations against these educators, last week it was reported that in the 2010s, DeAngelis appeared in multiple gay pornographic films under a pseudonym, Seth Rose. 

While there is nothing inherently wrong with appearing in adult films — sex work is a legitimate form of labor, provided people aren’t trafficked or forced into it — there can be little question that DeAngelis’ knowing and willful participation in sexually explicit films for distribution on the internet presents a far greater risk of exposing children to sexually inappropriate content than curriculum acknowledging that some children have two mommies or two daddies.

Moreover, DeAngelis’ double life is not an isolated incident within right-wing extremist circles. This pattern of projecting their own sexual obsessions and vices onto others is alarmingly common. The very people who claim to be defending America from sexual content often have sordid sexual scandals of their own.

Take, for example, Mark Foley, the viciously antigay Florida Republican congressman who led the House caucus on missing and exploited children, at least until he was caught sending explicit text messages to underage congressional interns and trying to groom them to sleep with him.

Or Larry Craig, the former GOP senator from Idaho and one of the most outspoken “family values” legislators who was arrested for trying to solicit public sex with an undercover male police officer at the Minneapolis airport.

Or George Rekers, co-founder of the anti-LGBTQ advocacy group the Family Research Council, who was caught hiring a gay male escort who advertised through rentboy.com.

More recently, Jerry Falwell Jr.’s alleged six-year ménage à trois with his wife and a pool boy led the former Liberty University president and Donald Trump disciple to resign in disgrace. And Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, was accused of sexually assaulting a male staffer during a car ride in October 2022

Just last year, a journalist in Philadelphia revealed that Moms for Liberty, a group that has aggressively fought against LGBTQ+ rights in schools, had a convicted child predator working as an outreach coordinator. Adding insult to injury, one of the cofounders of Moms for Liberty, Bridget Ziegler, was caught on camera engaged in a threesome with another woman just hours after decrying the discussion of LGBTQ civil rights in schools.

And earlier this month, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has described the existence of LGBTQ+ characters in young adult books as “filth,” was revealed to have a special affinity for transgender pornography.

We won’t speculate as to the psychology of these antiwoke freedom fighters who secretly live double lives. But we will state generally, indeed most of the time, the targets of their vicious attacks — teachers, administrators, schoolchildren and LGBTQ people — are not the ones responsible for sexualizing children. Teachers who casually mention their same-sex spouse or read a book that contains an LGBTQ character are not “sexualizing” children any more than heterosexual teachers who mention their opposite-sex partner or read “Romeo and Juliet.”

Similarly, a child who wants to feel safe while using the bathroom or changing for PE is not a threat to anyone or anything but the pearl-clutching sensibilities of extremists.

We will also note that many of these conservative leaders make a lot of money from peddling hatred and discrimination. DeAngelis, for example, has built a lucrative career on attacking public schools and advocating for school vouchers, which would funnel taxpayer money into private religious institutions. His work has been praised by figures like Trump, who once called him a “fighter” for parental rights. Yet, behind this public persona lies the truth: DeAngelis has participated in the very behaviors he has condemned in others, profiting off his performative outrage while hiding his own sexual past.

This hypocrisy among right-wing extremists is rooted in a fundamental dishonesty about their true goals. When they speak of protecting children, what they really mean is suppressing voices they disagree with — voices that promote inclusion, diversity and empathy. Instead of fostering healthy, open-minded environments for children to learn and grow, they seek to impose their narrow, exclusionary world-view on young people, using children as pawns in their culture wars. They earn big money and other rewards by sexualizing children themselves in the guise of right-wing crusades.

Society’s focus should not be on policing the personal lives of people who simply want to feel safe and be acknowledged; rather, it should be on exposing the true motives of those who seek to silence and oppress vulnerable communities in the name of protecting children.