Numerous members of the online MAGA-verse seem to be at intense war with one another on various fronts. From politics to religion to supporting or opposing Trump, to debating racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia, the MAGA community is in serious disarray over a range of issues. One of the most intense battles involves right-wing commentators Benny Johnson and Milo Yiannopoulos. The first shot was fired on December 6, when Yiannopoulos - who has unabashedly prided himself on being an openly gay far-right bigot - accused numerous conservative influencers like Johnson and the late Charlie Kirk of being closeted gay men on the Tim Pool Podcast during a conversation with swindler and former MAGA representative, George Santos, who is also gay.

To elaborate, Yiannopoulos accused Johnson, who hosts The Benny Show podcast, of using his family as a front while secretly having sex with men. Not surprisingly, Johnson, a husband and father of four (and soon to be five) children responded on social media that it was his “duty” to sue the far-right activist for his accusations. Yiannopoulos responded with menacing defiance. Time will tell what his accusations will lead to.

The contentious exchange between these two men illustrates a larger issue that has long plagued the Republican party and the conservative right: rampant and rabid homophobia. While neither major political party can claim to be purely progressive on LGBTQIA+ issues, the Republican party has been more hostile to them. Indeed, for a number of conservative donors or voters, any appearance of singlehood or the lack of a family can be grounds for being “suspect.”

This was the dilemma facing Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) when he made a run for the Republican nomination. Party bigwigs were anxious as to why the 57-year-old remained a bachelor. Similar rumors have abounded in regard to his colleague Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is 70 years old, also single and never been married. In an effort to quell the furor, Scott responded, “The fact that half of America’s adult population is single for the first time, to suggest that somehow being married or not married is going to be the determining factor of whether you’re a good president or not - it sounds like we’re living in 1963 and not 2023.” Scott’s statistics were somewhat off. A 2022 Pew Research Center poll revealed that 30%, slightly under a third of the United States’ adults, identify as single.

Although Scott may have recent statistics on his side, a large segment of the conservative right does in fact reside in pre-1965 America, in spirit if not in reality. Frankly, this mentality is hardly surprising for a party that, for some reason, is chronically obsessed with what individuals do in their bedrooms. For right-wing conservatives, anyone who deviates from the traditional, standard script of holy matrimony is viewed as “abnormal” or “suspect.” The 2024 Republican National Convention was suffused with anti-gay rhetoric. A number of speakers made references attacking same-sex marriage. Despite such animosity, certain groups such as the Log Cabin Republicans and gaysfortrump.org still pledge allegiance to the party.

When it comes to political candidates’ sexual orientation, it is obvious that the question on the minds of some voters and donors on the political, social, and cultural right is, “Is he, or isn’t he?” Because of their outright callousness and hypocrisy, many conservative men (and some women) do not feel that they can be their true selves. Thus, they have to live a life filled with hypocrisies and facades, participating in sham marriages while sheltering, disguising, and obscuring their sexuality, denouncing their fellows, and practicing self-hatred.

There are certainly liberal and left-leaning men and women who remain closeted for varied reasons, but the larger Democratic Party at least does not engage in inflammatory, hostile, and personally demeaning rhetoric. I, and presumably a healthy segment of the population, believe that a person’s sexuality is their business and no one else’s and could not care less about another adult’s sex life. Further, a recent Gallup poll indicated that homophobia is less commonplace among millennials and generation Z adults, regardless of their political ideology.

Homophobia and sexuality in general are issues that the Republican Party and the larger conservative movement need to acknowledge and confront with forthrightness. For the party to remain politically viable on the national stage, this self-reflection may very well be necessary.