Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right provocateur and self-proclaimed “ex-gay,” has said he regrets playing a role in making homosexuality more acceptable within the Republican Party, describing it as the “great regret” of his life.
In a controversial interview with anti-LGBTQ+ former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Yiannopoulos expressed his disdain for the rise of openly gay conservatives and claimed that being gay is rooted in trauma.
Yiannopoulos, who in 2021 publicly disavowed his homosexuality and attributed it to “childhood trauma,” said he believed homosexuality is not innate, but a result of emotional damage. He also credited his Roman Catholic faith with helping him avoid what he called “demonic homosexual promiscuity.”
“Mainstreaming homosexuality in the Republican Party is the great regret of my life, more so than anything I’ve done to my own soul, which is a lot,” he said.
He continued by blaming himself for giving rise to a new generation of gay Republicans, mentioning Lady MAGA and Nick Fuentes, and said the outcome “keeps him up at night.”
“The gay horrors that I’ve given birth to… I hate myself for that a little bit.”
‘Nobody’s gay’ and other conspiracies
In the same interview, Yiannopoulos claimed that the concept of a fixed sexual identity was “invented by gay activists” to silence religious critics of homosexuality. He asserted that “nobody’s gay”, adding that closeted conservatives in Washington D.C. suffer from the “sinister magic” of gay men.
“Homosexuals have a sinister bit of magic,” he told Carlson. “They want control over others because they feel powerless in their own lives.”
He also shared that he was alienated from his father and disrespected by his stepfather, which he suggested contributed to his sexual identity. He agreed with Carlson’s assertion that homosexuality has a “demonic, addictive” nature.
Rise and fall of a far-right firebrand
Yiannopoulos first gained prominence during the Gamergate campaign in 2014, aligning with right-wing media outlet Breitbart News and launching attacks on women, people of colour, Muslims, and LGBTQ+ communities. In 2017, he was widely denounced after comments appeared to defend child sexual abuse, leading to his resignation from Breitbart and the cancellation of a book deal.
Further controversies followed, including a permanent ban from Twitter, mounting debts, failed speaking tours, and public ejections from events. After being banned from several platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Patreon, he resorted to selling supplements on InfoWars and struggled to maintain a public platform.
Yiannopoulos also served as grand marshal of the Boston “Straight Pride” Parade in 2019, a move widely condemned as a mockery of LGBTQ+ pride. By 2021, he announced he was “ex-gay” and had “demoted” his husband to a “housemate.” He claimed he had thrown his $150,000 engagement ring—his “sodomy stone”—into the ocean.
More recently, he interned for far-right U.S. congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, claimed to have orchestrated the now-infamous Trump–Kanye–Nick Fuentes dinner, and promoted conversion therapy, a discredited practice condemned by major medical bodies as harmful.
He also posted photos of self-inflicted wounds, allegedly done to stop “urges” to be gay. In one interview, Yiannopoulos bizarrely claimed that dogs had stopped barking at him since becoming “ex-gay.”
Despite claiming to have turned his back on the LGBTQ+ community, Yiannopoulos remains a symbol of internalised homophobia, right-wing extremism, and media manipulation.
