Tucker Carlson Can’t Stop Talking About Gay Men!
Tucker Carlson seems to have a lot on his mind lately. Specifically, gay men. In a recent Daily Mail opinion piece, journalist Brad Polumbo pointed out that the former Fox News host has dedicated an unusual amount of airtime to homosexuality in recent months. So what’s going on with Tucker?
Slurs on Thanksgiving.
On 27 November, Carlson interviewed British television host Piers Morgan on The Tucker Carlson Show. The segment took a turn when Carlson began pressing Morgan to say a homophobic slur on camera.
Morgan refused. “I don’t believe in needlessly sneering or insulting anybody,” he told Carlson.
Carlson responded by saying the word himself, repeating it several times. He then declared that he could “use any freaking word” he wanted, framing the stunt as an exercise in free speech.
Morgan pushed back, telling Carlson he did not believe the host would say the slur directly to a gay person’s face. Carlson insisted he was “not anti-gay” and “never has been.”
The segment aired just before Thanksgiving. Festive.
Two hours with Milo Yiannopoulos.
The following week, on 4 December, Carlson devoted over two hours to an interview with Milo Yiannopoulos, a right-wing provocateur who once identified as gay but now claims otherwise.
Carlson opened the episode by defending Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, a 2023 law that punishes same-sex relationships with life imprisonment. He described the law as “civilised” and claimed it only targets “gay rape” and intentional disease transmission.
This is inaccurate. The law criminalises consensual same-sex activity. Carlson either did not read it or chose to misrepresent it.
During the interview, Yiannopoulos promoted debunked theories about the causes of homosexuality, including absent fathers, domineering mothers and childhood trauma. He described same-sex attraction as “an addictive urge” rather than a sexuality.
Pete Buttigieg shuts him down.
Carlson has also spent considerable energy on Pete Buttigieg, the former US Transportation Secretary. In September, Carlson called Buttigieg a “fake gay guy” and offered to quiz him on “very specific questions about gay sex” to test his authenticity.
Buttigieg, who married his husband Chasten in 2018 and is raising two children, responded during a conversation with journalist Kara Swisher.
"You're not gay, dude. Stop." Tucker Carlson is directly challenging Pete Buttigieg's identity. What’s behind the repeated personal attacks? 👇 pic.twitter.com/ljsdK6Mgz3
— DNA (@DNAmagazine) September 8, 2025
“First of all, I do not think I want to discuss anything with Tucker Carlson,” Buttigieg said. “But I cannot think of anything I would want to discuss less with Tucker Carlson than that.”
He added: “I guess it’s a sign of progress that their idea of a conspiracy is that I’m actually secretly straight. We are through the looking glass now.”
A long paper trail.
Carlson’s history on this subject is well documented. His 1991 college yearbook at Trinity College listed him as a member of The Dan White Society, a reference to the man who assassinated gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk. That same year, he wrote an article for his college newspaper calling homosexuality “unnatural and unhealthy.”
In 2007, he bragged on MSNBC about attacking a gay man in a public bathroom.
None of this is new. But the intensity of his recent focus is hard to ignore.
What does this all mean?
When someone with 16.8 million followers on X spends this much time talking about gay men, gay sex, and whether certain people are “really gay,” it says more about them than their targets.
We have seen plenty of media figures build careers on demonising the community. What makes Carlson’s approach odd is the sheer volume and specificity. The man appears genuinely obsessed.
Is this about ratings? Personal fascination? A belief that attacking gay men is a path to relevance in the current political climate?
Whatever the reason, it is worth noting that the people he targets, like Buttigieg, are out there raising families and moving on with their lives. Tucker Carlson, meanwhile, cannot seem to stop thinking about them.
