Pathetic right-wing cranks think the new gay Captain America will ‘contract AIDS’
(Twitter/JasonSCampbell/Marvel Comics)
Right-wing YouTuber Steven Crowder’s controversial podcast is in hot water for suggesting the new gay Captain American will contract AIDS.
Dave Landau hosted the Wednesday (17 March) edition of the Louder with Crowder podcast in the absence of Steven Crowder. In the YouTube livestream, Landau and other co-hosts mocked Marvel Comics’ announcement of a new gay Captain America character, saying the new character will contract AIDs.
Media Matters researcher Jason Campbell said Landau and the other co-hosts “doubled down on the show’s racism, transphobia and general bigotry”. He wrote on the Media Matters website that Landau went after trans icon Elliot Page, continuously misgendering Page and saying his “breasts will be auctioned off on eBay”.
After these transphobic comments, Landau ridiculed the new Marvel character’s design which features a tattooed, Mohawk-sporting teen Captain America. He said on the podcast the new Captain America “looks like a twink” and that he looks like he “sells ecstasy outside of a rave in the year 2001”.
After being widely condemned for racism, “Louder with Crowder” crew doubles down on bigotry.
Here's the guest host suggesting that a new gay Captain America character will contract AIDShttps://t.co/cY8CK7OrsN pic.twitter.com/YLhV3QdIqE
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 17, 2021
“Couldn’t he just be gay and look like Captain America always looks?” Landau asked.
He also claimed that the podcast “obtained some exclusive new story details”. Landau said: “Cap’s main conflict is not with the Nazis, but instead he battles against complications arising from sharing his super serum needles.”
The podcast then shared an image of the new Captain America character, Aaron Fisher, in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask covering his face. The image also featured the word “AIDs” in the corner.
Landau went on to claim that “Captain America brought AIDS into this office”. He added Marvel is “really playing catch-up” since rival comic book publisher DC “actually did this first with AIDS Superman“.
“Because it’s not just kryptonite that affects Superman,” Landau said. “It’s also three others, three letters that brought him to his final resting place – TLC.”
The French government sponsored an AIDS/HIV prevention campaign in 2004 that featured photos of Superman and Wonder Woman who had both contracted AIDS. The campaign was intended to persuade adolescents to adopt preventive behaviours to prevent the spread of AIDS.
Marvel Comics announced the new “openly gay” Captain America on Tuesday (16 March) and said the patriotic hero’s new series The United of States of Captain America will launch just in time for Pride month.
The series will feature Steve Rogers – who is the current Captain America in the Marvel universe – teaming up with Captain Americas of the past on a road trip across the US to find his stolen shield. These iterations will include Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson and the Captain America of the Railways, Aaron Fisher.
Comic book writer Joshua Trujillo said the new LGBT+ hero is inspired by the real-life “heroes of the queer community: activists, leaders and everyday folks pushing for a better life”.
Fisher will be featured in the first issue of the comic book series which will be released on 2 June.
On the same day the new Captain America was announced, Crowder’s podcast came under fire after calling a $5 billion stimulus for farmers of colour, who have lost most of their land over the last century due to systematic discrimination, “reparations” for “coloured farmers”.
Campbell called the 16 March segment “a wildly racist tirade against Black farmers” which saw Steven Crowder make “jokes” about Black farmers planting “Hennessy trees” in soil that has “a high level of meth”.
Bloomberg News later reported that the video was removed from YouTube for violating the platform’s COVID content policies. YouTube also said the video was blocked from running ads and that Crowder himself did not make any money from the video.
A YouTube spokesperson stated: “This video violates our COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits content claiming that the death rates of COVID-19 are less severe or equally as severe as the common cold or seasonal flu.”
