A couple of years ago, I wrote about Speaker Mike Johnson’s persistent fixation on gay sex. Sure, he loaths the LGBTQ+ community as a whole and abhors same-sex marriage, but the physical act itself really rubs Johnson the wrong way. 

Pun intended.

Johnson seems unable to discuss queer people without conjuring up an image of what we might be doing in the bedroom. My conclusion then was simple, and that’s when a politician is this singularly focused on other people’s private, consensual sex lives, it says far more about them than about the people they’re condemning.

Now, it looks like Pete Hegseth is breathlessly itching to catch up to Johnson in the “how much can I talk about gay sex?” contest. There are underwear contests, measurement contests, and drag contests. But for Hegseth, Johnson, and other warped Christian conservatives, it’s all about who can outdo the other on condemning gay sex.

Hegseth, the waxed and tatted Defense Secretary “warrior” recently posted a video in which a preacher says that gay sex should be banned. The video featured another one of those “hell hath no fury like a pastor demonized” Doug Wilson, who is the co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).

According to the CREC’s “story,” they seek “to uphold traditional Reformed distinctives, resisting fundamentalist and modernist trends that dilute doctrinal purity and ecclesiastical structures.” What they mean, in a nutshell, is returning our society to the days of the repressed 19th century. What a bunch of forward-looking thinkers!

Sarcasm intended.

Now, you might be asking yourself, “Why would Hegseth, with all that’s going on in his world, wars, disclosing military secrets on Signal, and militarizing the streets of Washington, D.C. want to concern himself with gay sex? 

Well, this isn’t the first time he’s bucked this bronco. It aligns perfectly with what Hegseth wrote in his book late last year, where he railed against the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the military, mocked trans service members, and insisted that women should not be in combat. 

He claimed that diversity efforts and inclusive policies had weakened the armed forces and undermined their heterosexual “warrior culture.” In his telling and tome, the military is meant to be an all-male, all-cisgender, all-straight bastion of masculinity, a place where his idealized image of the warrior can reign unchallenged.

What’s he so afraid of? Is the sight of two men holding hands enough to send him reaching for a Bible and getting down on his knees? Or is it the thought of what they might be doing later making him ill?

Because to come out and say “gay sex should be banned” is not a broad, policy-based statement to be sure. He’s making a frantic leap into other people’s intimate lives, which makes you wonder who’s really doing the fantasizing here? After all, gay military and uniform porn is one of the most popular plot lines out there. Maybe Hegseth just saw something done by a subpar director.

This man is so obsessed with his own looks, his tattoos, his gym body, and his rugged, camera-ready image. Remember, he had a make-up studio installed in the Pentagon for himself.

His fixation on what other people do sexually is more than a little suspicious. It’s the same voyeuristic streak Johnson has, but wrapped in military fatigues, machismo, and his vaunted “warrior ethos.”

Finally, why does the top man at the Pentagon, with bottom-of-the-barrel leadership skills, who lacks versatility (he only has one title compared to others who have several), think he’s an expert of gay sex?

Because Hegseth is taking his cues from people like Doug Wilson, both longing for the days when our military rode around on horses, hurtling spears, and every man in the military was completely thought-to-be straight. 

Hegseth appreciates that Wilson, the preacher, has painted LGBTQ+ people as predators and degenerates, preaching a gospel of exclusion that trades in fear and falsehood. Hegseth’s rhetoric fits neatly into that mold, moral outrage rooted in some strange personal preoccupation.

Which brings me to the real question. What makes a man so hateful toward men who have sex with men? Some studies have shown that intense homophobia among some straight men can be tied to insecurity about their own masculinity, fear of being perceived as feminine, or even unacknowledged same-sex attraction. 

I don’t know where Hegseth lands on that spectrum.

Anyway, in authoritarian or hyper-religious environments like we are in today with Hegseth’s despot boss, Donald Trump, those feelings often get repressed and then projected outward as over-the-top anger toward queer people. In other words, the louder the condemnation, the deeper the personal conflict may run.

There was a guy I worked with years ago who made gay joke, after gay joke, after gay joke. I never told him about my sexuality, and bit my tongue. Then I saw him wasted one late night at a gay bar in NYC, and it all clicked!

This is why the Mike Johnson comparison is unavoidable. Both men wrap themselves in faith and patriotism, so much so, it just makes you want to doubt their sincerity. 

If push came to shove, in a choice between outlawing gay sex or outlawing guns, it would be no contest. They’d argue that everybody should have guns, and no one should have gay sex. Things would be much better and safer if it were the other way around.

I can assure you, that in the end, Hegseth share of the ban-gay-sex video says far more about him than it does about any gay man. For a man desperate to prove his toughness, there’s nothing more revealing than how fragile he gets when faced with someone else’s sex life.