Charlie Kirk’s history of LGBTQ-related public statements revisited
On the Charlie Kirk Show in 2022, Kirk claimed that gay couples “are not happy just having marriage. Instead, they now want to corrupt your children”
The late Charlie Kirk mobilised millions of young Republicans with his right-wing youth platform Turning Point USA, created in 2012 when he was just 18. However, when the cult political figure was assassinated earlier this month while speaking at a university, his influence was exponentially turbocharged – and as we enter a new, terrifying era for polarised politics, we felt a re-evaluation of his public record on LGBTQ issues was due.
April 2022
On the Charlie Kirk Show, Kirk claims gay couples “are not happy just having marriage. Instead, they now want to corrupt your children.”
April 2022
The same month, on the same show, he links trans people and inflation with no evidence to support the claims. “There’s a direct connection to inflation and the trans issue. You say, Charlie, come on. They couldn’t be further apart. No, they’re exactly the same. They’re the same in this aspect—when you believe that men can become women, why wouldn’t you also believe that you could print wealth? If you believe that someone can change their gender, why wouldn’t you also believe that money is wealth?”
2023
In a speech posted by Right Wing Watch, Kirk said: “One issue I think that is so against our senses, so against the natural law and dare I say a throbbing middle finger to God, is the transgender thing happening in America right now.” In the same speech, he cited a Bible verse that states “the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”
2023
In another appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show, Kirk again weighs in on trans issues, saying: “These people are sick. I don’t say that lightly. […] Someone should’ve just took care of it the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and 60s.”
April 2024
Speaking on his show, Kirk said: “We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor.”
June 2024
Speaking on a podcast, Kirk attacks YouTuber Ms. Rachel for quoting “love your neighbour” to defend Pride celebrations. “Ms. Rachel, you might wanna crack open that Bible of yours, in a lesser referenced part of the same part of scripture is in Leviticus 18 is that thou shall lay with another man, shall be stoned to death,” he said: “Just sayin’.” (In Leviticus 18:22, it states: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Leviticus 20:13 adds: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”)
Following Kirk’s death, high profile critics including horror writer Stephen King apologised after backlash for highlighting the remarks and claiming Kirk advocated for stoning homosexuals to death. But let’s face it: even the comparison is unsavoury and problematic, and given Kirk signed off the sentiment by calling it “God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters,” you’ve got to wonder if King’s apology (“I apologise for saying Charlie Kirk advocated stoning gays. What he actually demonstrated was how some people cherry-pick Biblical passages”) was necessary.
September 2024
“I don’t agree with your lifestyle,” Kirk told a gay Wisconsin college student at a speaking engagement. “I don’t think you should introduce yourself just based on your sexuality because that’s not who you are.”
November 2024
Kirk wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘xy = man’ at an election rally in Arizona.
March 2025
During a college appearance, Kirk calls trans identities a “social contagion” caused by “the autism spectrum” and “puberty anxiety.”
August 2025
“We should work to overturn every conviction for those arrested, fined, or otherwise harassed for the ‘hate crime’ of doing donuts over Pride flags painted on public streets,” Kirk posted on X. “It should be legal to burn a rainbow or BLM flag in public,” he added.
Verdict
Chillingly, even Kirk’s last words falsely linked transgenderism with mass shootings. Speaking at a campus event in Utah, Kirk was asked by a student: “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” To which he replied: “Too many.” Still, nobody – and we mean nobody – deserves to die for their political views. Barack Obama said it best in his tribute to Kirk following his death: “This kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy.” At the time of writing, the man suspected of killing Kirk, Tyler Robinson, was facing seven charges including aggravated murder.