Former Fox host Tucker Carlson said that it’s so obvious that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) is gay that it actually proves that it’s Democrats who are the real homophobes because Walz doesn’t feel comfortable coming out.
Carlson was on Megyn Kelly’s SiriusXM show, where she played a clip of Walz gesticulating energetically at the end of a rally. Walz has gotten media attention for his animated presence at campaign events.
Related
When Gus Walz cried at the DNC, his tears helped free us all from toxic gender roles
Some right-wingers tried to mock the 17-year-old for crying in public. They missed the larger point by a mile.
“I’m just gonna say, I don’t know any man who behaves like that,” Kelly said.
Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024
Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
“Come on, I mean, come on,” Carlson responded, apparently frustrated at something. “I don’t want to be mean and also I don’t want to say things I can’t prove, but like, let’s- let’s be real.”
“Let me just say, not connected necessarily to Tim Walz, I’m never going to take another lecture about gay rights from these people, like, ‘Oh, you hate gays and you keep them all in the closet or whatever,’” Carlson ranted as Kelly giggled.
“Any party… Stop with the, with the lectures about that stuff. Do you know what I mean? If you’re so for, in general, if you’re so for gay rights then that would mean that any member of your party who’s gay would feel free to say so in public and would not be pretending not to be gay. I’m just saying.”
Carlson then said that he doesn’t dislike Walz for being gay, but he’s mad at “the falseness of” his pretending to be straight. Walz is married and has two kids with his wife. He has never said that he identifies as anything under the LGBTQ+ umbrella.
“I don’t want to be mean,” Carlson said, even though it seemed like he was just trying to make a gay joke while speculating about someone else’s private life, “and I really think that people’s private lives can be private if they want them to be private, I don’t think you should have to announce everything you’re into in public, I believe in privacy, I really do.”
“Let’s just stop talking about other peopel’s private lives, other peopel’s sexual orientations, let’s all agree to shut up about that, OK? I would be happy with that arrangement,” Carlson said.
Even though he brought up Walz’s sexual orientation on the basis of nothing other than Walz waving at a crowd at a rally, Carlson insisted that it’s liberals who are to blame for his rant because “they just push so hard, they’re the ones that get into other people’s private lives, lecturing your kids about sex and stuff that should be private.”
This is far from the first time that right-wing media has called Walz gay or feminine in an attempt to insult him. Fox host Jesse Watters said in August that Walz isn’t masculine because of the way he waves to crowds.
“Here’s twitchy Tim on stage, waving profusely in a very unsettling matter, very unsettling. Men should not move this way. It’s not the way we move,” Watters said.
Watters then said that Walz isn’t attracted to his own wife because he didn’t hug her correctly on stage at a rally: “What’s going on here? And the hug is not the way you hug your wife. You hug your wife from the body. You don’t hug like this.”
Earlier this month, Trump advisor Jason Miller called Walz a “wildly gesticulating effeminate caricature.”
Pundits have noted that “masculinity” has become a subtext this election, with the Republican ticket positioning itself as “strong” candidates who will “protect” women by upholding conservative gender roles. Harris has painted Republicans’s anti-abortion policies as a threat to women’s bodily autonomy and the right of all Americans to make personal medical decisions.
Walz is a father, a hunter, a former military servicemember, and a former football coach who has steadfastly supported LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive, and workers’ rights, but many on the right define masculinity now as the opposition to women’s equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and gun control measures.
Walz, on the other hand, is now best known for his supporting role in Harris’ candidacy as well as his past advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, including helping his school establish a gay-straight alliance in the 1990s and making Minnesota a sanctuary state for trans youth.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
