The College Republicans Just Appointed A Man Who Said Gay Men Spread AIDS At Gyms
Kai Schwemmer is the newly appointed Political Director of College Republicans of America (CRA), a conservative student organisation founded in 2023 with more than 200 chapters across the United States.
College Republicans is an umbrella term for college and university students who support the Republican Party, and the CRA has positioned itself further to the right than the 134-year-old College Republican National Committee (CRNC). Schwemmer is 23, a Brigham Young University (BYU) student, and a returned Latter-day Saints missionary. He also has a documented history of homophobic, racist, antisemitic, and sexist statements.
What did Kai Schwemmer say about gay men?
In a January 2023 livestream, Schwemmer reacted to a Time magazine story about fitness culture by saying, “Once again, gay men trying to take over straight male spaces. Gay men have been trying to subvert the gym.” He added: “They’ve been weaponizing it to give you AIDS”. In a July 2025 appearance on Modern Day Debate, he said he was “anti-gay marriage” and “in favour of repealing same-sex marriage protections.” He has also claimed that “most pedophiles are gay men.”
We think it’s worth paying attention when this is the person chosen to represent the next generation of young Republican politics.
Friends In White Nationalist Places
Schwemmer met white nationalist figure Nick Fuentes in 2021 during Fuentes’ “white boy summer” tour. He appeared as a guest at Fuentes’s 2022 America First Political Action Conference and streamed on Fuentes’s platform. Researcher Ben Lorber from Political Research Associates has catalogued Schwemmer’s public statements since 2020 and identified what he describes as “a consistent thread of white supremacy”. Schwemmer rejects the “groyper” label, saying, “I’m not a groyper; I am simply and unapologetically an American nationalist.”
The so-called “Groyper Army” uses internet memes, trolling, and in-person confrontations to push white nationalist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ+ views into the mainstream conservative movement.
CRA is standing by him
CRA President Martin Bertao responded to the backlash by writing, “I would like to apologise… to absolutely NOBODY. CRA will never back down to the WOKE mob!” Schwemmer himself issued a statement on 13 March saying his earlier comments “should not be taken to accurately reflect my views or demeanor now,” adding, “In the past, I’ve spoken in ways that were unnecessarily crass or demeaning”. Both the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and StopAntisemitism have condemned the appointment.
It is worth noting that several of the statements documented above were made in 2025, well after the mission trip Schwemmer says changed him.
Groyper Kai Schwemmer says he "will not be bullied into apologizing" just for being in a photo with Nick Fuentes. It was a bit more than a photo. Schwemmer appeared in a pro-Fuentes documentary where he showered Fuentes with praise. https://t.co/F4SdQun6zB pic.twitter.com/LEWrTJ77ok
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 11, 2026
