Self-appointed arbiter of gayness, Tucker Carlson, claims Democrats won’t let Tim Walz come out as gay

Tucker Carlson, the disgraced former Fox News host, went on Megyn Kelly’s podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, Wednesday and accused Democrats, without evidence, of keeping Vice President Kamala Harris’srunning mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, from coming out as gay.

Carlson and Kelly’s conversation focused on Walz after Kelly played a video from a Monday campaign event in Green Bay, Wis., Walz appeared alongside Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

During the rally, Walz—known for his high-energy style—was seen gesturing enthusiastically as he spoke. It was this footage that Carlson and Kelly seized upon, using the governor’s animated hand movements as fodder for insinuations about his sexuality. Carlson, who stopped just short of directly claiming Walz is gay, used the governor’s behavior to suggest that the Democratic Party was hiding something.

“Come on. I mean, come on. I am just trying to control myself because I don’t want to be mean, and also, I don’t want to say things I can’t prove, but let’s be real,” Carlson said. “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.’ Stop with the lectures about that stuff.”

Carlson then went on to accuse Democrats of being disingenuous in their support for LGBTQ+ rights, implying that if Democrats were genuinely supportive, Walz would feel free to come out. “In general, if you’re so for gay rights, 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 hate the falseness of it,” he claimed.

Then he contradicted himself.

“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,” he claimed while making Walz’s supposed secret private life a public topic. “But they just push so hard. They’re the ones you get into other people’s private lives, lecturing your kids about sex and stuff that should be private.” Carlson cited “condom and banana” safer-sex demonstrations.

A spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to The Advocate’s request for comment.

This isn’t the first time Carlson has used a public figure’s sexuality to stir controversy. In July, he accused Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, an out gay man, of being “not gay at all,” implying that Buttigieg’s marriage to his husband, Chasten, was part of a calculated political strategy rather than a reflection of his identity.

Interestingly, research from the Kinsey Institute suggests that people who hold strong anti-gay views, like Carlson, may be less accurate when it comes to detecting others’ sexual orientations, a concept popularly referred to as “gaydar.” Studies indicate that people who harbor anti-gay sentiments tend to perform worse in recognizing sexual orientation from cues like speech patterns or mannerisms. By contrast, those who are more familiar with and accepting of LGBTQ+ individuals are often more accurate in their assessments.

GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis responded to Carlson's latest remarks in a statement to The Advocate: “Homophobic tropes and disinformation are par for the course in right-wing media, but that doesn’t make them any less damaging,” she said. “Using immutable traits like sexual orientation or gender identity in order to ridicule someone does nothing but harm LGBTQ people, especially LGBTQ youth, who are bullied at alarming rates, not just at school, but by politicians and talking heads.”

Carlson’s remarks continue a right-wing obsession with LGBTQ+ people recently. In a Thursday appearance on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast, Walz criticized the GOP’s reliance on transphobic rhetoric.

“If you’re watching any sporting events right now, you see that Donald Trump’s closing arguments are to demonize a group of people for being who they are,” Walz said. “We’re out there trying to make the case that access to health care, a clean environment, manufacturing jobs, and keeping your local hospital open are what people are really concerned about. They’re running millions of dollars of ads demonizing folks who are just trying to live their lives.”

Trump’s campaign has been spending millions to fuel fear and division, particularly with its anti-trans ads, in the final stretch before the election.

Addressing these tactics earlier this week during an interview on Fox News, Harris called out Trump for targeting a small minority group. “I think [Trump] spent $20 million on those ads trying to create a sense of fear in the voters because he actually has no plan in this election that is about focusing on the needs of the American people. Twenty-million dollars on that ad, on an issue that, as it relates to the biggest issues that affect the American people, it’s really quite remote,” Harris said.