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Corey DeAngelis has gone dark on social media.
Corey DeAngelis, a conservative education reform advocate who has espoused anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments, has been exposed for his past involvement in gay adult films. The revelation has triggered widespread accusations of hypocrisy online, given DeAngelis’ long-standing public stance against LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion.
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DeAngelis, a self-described “school choice evangelist,” is a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children and a frequent Fox News contributor, though the organization has scrubbed its website of DeAngelis. His career has primarily focused on promoting school choice and criticizing public education for allegedly indoctrinating children with “woke” ideologies, including support for LGBTQ+ rights. However, it has now emerged that as recently as 2014, DeAngelis performed in gay adult films under the pseudonym “Seth Rose,” including a scene in which he won a group masturbation contest.
The revelations, first reported by StraightUpGayPorn.com, have ignited a firestorm of criticism.
Matt Bernstein, a prominent LGBTQ+ activist, took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the news, writing, “just learned this anti-lgbtq school reform guy does gay porn,” in a post that quickly went viral.
DeAngelis has gone silent on social media and has not responded to The Advocate’s requests for comment. The Advocate has not been able to independently confirm that DeAngelis is the person who appeared in the adult films, but The Advocate compared images and audio of DeAngelis with Rose. Our analysis of the clips suggests they are the same.
The Advocate contacted a representative of Blurred Media Inc., the parent company of the adult film studio that produced the content, but did not receive a response.
Before the adult film revelations, DeAngelis had carved out a prominent role within conservative circles as a leading advocate for school choice, a policy that allows parents to select the educational setting for their children rather than being limited to public schools in their district. School choice encompasses a range of mechanisms, including voucher programs that fund private school tuition, charter schools, education savings accounts, and tax-credit scholarships. However, critics, including public education advocates, have long argued that school choice diverts necessary funding from public schools, leaves disadvantaged students behind, and contributes to greater inequality in the education system.
DeAngelis is a senior fellow at multiple think tanks, including the Reason Foundation and the Cato Institute, and is the executive director of the Educational Freedom Institute. DeAngelis has regularly appeared on Fox News and other conservative media outlets, where he has railed against public schools for what he claims is an overemphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, including those that support LGBTQ+ students.
DeAngelis also courted controversy recently when he promoted a post by Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, which criticized the Biden-Harris administration for allegedly pushing “woke ideologies” in schools. Johnson’s post included a graphic that claimed the “Radical Left’s 2024 Weekly Lesson Plan” for schools consisted of topics like Critical Race Theory, Drag Queen Story Hour, mandatory pronoun recognition, “boys participating in girls’ sports,” and pro-Hamas protests. DeAngelis quote-tweeted Johnson’s message: “It’s time to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act. School choice defeats the woke mind virus.”
DeAngelis is scheduled to speak at a right-wing conference in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Sept. 29. The event, titled “Rescue The Republic,” will feature a lineup of anti-LGBTQ+ extremists, including Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice and other far-right figures such as Charlie Kirk, Jordan Peterson, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In a July 2023 appearance on Fox News, DeAngelis expressed outrage at the California superintendent of public instruction’s opposition to a school district’s policy to outtransgender students to their parents. “It’s really disgusting,” DeAngelis said, “We have some people here today in 2023 fighting to keep sexual secrets from parents when it comes to their own children. It’s absolutely ridiculous.” He praised the Chino Valley Unified School District board for informing parents, saying, “Freedom can ring even in Communist California, a deep blue state.”
During another Fox News appearance this year, DeAngelis criticized LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts, claiming they overshadowed basic education. “They’re focused more on the LGBTs than the ABCs,” he said. “They want to indoctrinate your kids, not educate them.”
Around the country, the American Civil Liberties Union is tracking around 200 anti-LGBTQ+ education bills in 2024.
DeAngelis is not the only conservative figure facing recent accusations of hypocrisy. Last week, Mark Robinson, the Republican lieutenant governor of North Carolina and gubernatorial candidate, made headlines after it was revealed that he previously called himself a “Black Nazi” and admitted to enjoying transgender pornography, despite his long history of anti-transgender rhetoric. Robinson has also been accused of promoting Holocaust denial and expressing support for reinstating slavery.
GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis highlighted DeAngelis’s hypocrisy in a statement to The Advocate.
“Corey DeAngelis is yet another public figure whose anti-LGBTQ extremism already makes him deeply unqualified to be an expert in improving safety and education at school,” she said. “The latest news on DeAngelis further reveals his baseless, hypocritical attempt to profiteer and score political points. DeAngelis is a sideshow charlatan. The real threat is from the people who’ve propped him up and their Project 2025 blueprint for a government takeover that would demolish the Department of Education and refuse to recognize rising LGBTQ visibility and acceptance across society.”
Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly listed 500 anti-LGBTQ+ education bills being tracked by the ACLU. The actual number is 200. This was made during the editing process. We apologize for the error.
