Normal gays

Culture My Afternoon With the ‘Normal Gay Guys’ Who Voted for Trump Gay MAGA is hypermasculine and anti-woke—and it wants a break from the LGBTQ+ movement. Yiannopoulos now identifies as ex-gay. Ewer, 40, is a copresident of the New York City chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, the storied gay conservative political organization that was hosting the event.

Walmart, he added, was scaling back its DEI programs. Daniel Penny, Ewer pointed out, had been acquitted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely. Gay men have long affiliated themselves with the Republican Party, and not without political justification.

From the normal gays to the ballroom queens, we all need to feel seen, heard, and proud. While many gay men feel an instinctive solidarity with trans people, given our shared histories of demonization and ostracization, several of the MAGA gays I spoke to took great pains to distance themselves from the trans movement—as if perhaps they sensed that its unpopularity with Republicans could rub off on them.

But for gays MAGA gays no sound bite better encapsulated their particular political identity. Gathered therein were about 70 gay men, all sporting neat haircuts and festive attire, as well as about half a dozen women, one of whom held a Maltipoo in the crook of her arm.

Sign up here to get it in your inbox. Most importantly, if there is a group of gay men who want to call themselves “normal,” then it’s essential that the gay community doesn’t ignore them. The election season starred its own cast of gay MAGA personalities.

Its embrace of Trump has paid off. It was a Sunday afternoon in December, and as I wandered normal the crowd I felt as if I could have been at any number of upscale gay holiday gatherings happening across the city.

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They also believe the fight for gay rights, at least as they define it, is largely over. These and the other men I spoke to for this article thrill to different aspects of the MAGA movement. But Ewer, a gregarious Juilliard-trained gay, knew his audience—a group of men who prized irreverence, and who were united not only by their political leanings but by their sexuality.

So transfixed was I by the brazen antics and the sheer improbability of these men that I even wrote a novel, published early last year, featuring a subplot about a gay MAGA provocateur. The organization, Moran said, doubled its paid memberships and quintupled its email sign-ups during the election and now counts 10, members nationwide.

There were more conservative victories to celebrate. For their part, the men in this room observed no such irony in the first place. But there was one moment during the election that resonated equally with all of them—and that perhaps speaks to a difference normal them and their more theatrical gay MAGA forebears.

And now, from their glowing perch atop the city, they raised their glasses to the four years ahead. To them Trump is not only pro-gay but a gay icon unto himself, a champion of masculinity in both its traditional and campy forms, as lovable for his flamboyant excess as for his red-meat invective against the left.

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Why prioritize their gay identity, some ask, when they can already marry and serve openly in the military, and when they enjoy protections from employment discrimination? A young man in a tuxedo greeted me at the door and ushered me into a well-appointed living room, where a fire glowed in a corner and prints of ancient Greek temples overlooked a grand piano.

Only a few details—an American flag lapel pin, rainbow-colored campaign signs, a MAGA hat sitting among bottles of Josh Cabernet Sauvignon—told me I was in unique territory. The mood in the room was jubilant, and not just because Donald Trump was returning to the White House.

As historian Neil J. Nevertheless, gay conservatives maintained their place in the party, working to elect socially moderate candidates and advocating for marriage equality and the end of the military ban, often under the auspices of the Log Cabin Republicans.