Charlie Kirk’s anti-LGBTQ+ controversies explored, including bizarre insurrection ‘gay sex’ comment

Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was well known for his anti-LGBTQ+ stance prior to being fatally shot at a speaking event in Utah, including calling trans people a “throbbing middle finger to God”.

Known for his gun rights advocacy as well as his anti-LGBTQ+ views, Kirk, 31, was holding one of his ‘Prove Me Wrong’ debate events – where students are invited to challenge his political opinions – at Utah Valley University on Wednesday (10 September) when he was killed.

In a video seen by PinkNews, Kirk was surrounded by audience members on the campus as he discussed trans shooters and mass shootings – an increasingly prevalent conservative talking point – when a loud gunshot rang out and he jolted back in his chair, blood pouring from his neck.

Kirk was transported to hospital but later died of his injury.

The shooter remains at large, with police describing the incident as a “targeted” attack on Kirk.

What has Charlie Kirk said about LGBTQ+ rights?

Charlie Kirk has said more negative, disparaging and misinformed things about the LGBTQ+ community – namely trans folks – over the years than we can report here in full, but here are some key controversies.

Kirk described the LGBTQ+ community as an “agenda” and “groomers” – ye olde conservative dogwhistles – and labelled trans peoples as “freaks” and used the slur “tr***y” on countless occasions. He also said being gay was a “lifestyle” and called for violence against trans folks.

Charlie Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA, is openly calling for the lynching of transgender individuals.

Says that trans people should be "dealt with" like men did "in the 50s and 60s"

He's the latest major conservative calling for violence against us.pic.twitter.com/kBm3nMORUw

— Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com on Bsky (@ErinInTheMorn) February 18, 2023

Back in October 2021, Kirk penned a piece for The American Mind in which he discussed trending on X, then Twitter, for claiming “the Democrat Party is advancing a culture marked by sexual anarchy”.

He defined ‘sexual anarchy’ using a section from David Engelhardt’s book Good Kills which states it is “the throwing off of God’s sexual order” because “from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female'”.

“God’s sexual order is as plain in nature as it is in scripture, and people everywhere have observed and recognized these “facts of life” for millennia,” Kirk claimed, clearly not acknowledging the various communities around the world that recognised third, and other, genders.

“But the progressive left has succeeded in so corrupting our language, our media, and our universities that it is now controversial to state observable, objective, scientific truths. It’s even worse if you root those truths in the Judeo-Christian tradition.  

“The facts that there are only two genders; that transgenderism and gender “fluidity” are lies that hurt people and abuse kids; and that God’s good, loving, and joyful ideal for our lives is for a man and woman to be joined in a lifelong marriage covenant—these are all under official opprobrium in 2021.”  

He continued: “In nearly every conceivable way, sexual anarchy, or the lack of healthy sexual order, is obvious in America. Marriage rates are plummeting. Birth rates are falling off a cliff. Young people are addicted to pornography. The progressive pillars of Hollywood, legacy media, and metropolitan elites want to cancel entire states like Texas for standing up for the unborn.”

“The NCAA will relocate sporting tournaments from states that don’t allow male “trans” athletes to compete against biological females,” he added.

Charlie Kirk warns "the transgender movement is an introductory phase to get you to strip yourself of your humanity to mesh with machines," adding "if you stop being a man, then maybe you can stop being a human being" pic.twitter.com/kGs1dxcHil

— Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) February 2, 2022

In February 2022, he claimed trans rights would lead to people to becoming part-human, part-machine in a bizarre rant.

“The transgender movement is an introductory phase to get you to strip yourself of your humanity to mesh with machines,” he alleged, going on to say that if people can “choose any gender” they will then choose to have an exoskeleton if they so wish. He added such a conspiracy theory is “proven” and is why Meta created the Metaverse.

“This is why they are so insistent of this transgender thing because if you stop being a man, maybe you stop being a human being, maybe you can just plug into some sort of machine,” he said, describing it as “Ready Player One meets Inception” where “you kinda just hook up to a machine all day long and you’re controlled by five companies that control your thoughts, your feelings and the real world ends up being the not real world”.

“That’s the deeper significance of the transgender movement no one wants to talk about,” he concluded.

In June 2023, Kirk linked ‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski’s historical accounts of gender dysphoria to his crimes following his death, a connection which echoes the current – frequently disproven – conspiracy theories that trans people are inherently more violent than other demographics.

Kirk said Kaczynski, a domestic terrorist known for this 17-year-long mail bomb campaign, “went mad” after being subjected to MKUltra experiments, adding: “A lot of people know about that…but did you know that before becoming a hermit who mailed bombs to people, Kaczynski also developed gender dysphoria and wanted to become a woman?”

A few months later, Kirk described trans people as a “throbbing middle finger to God” before deadnaming trans swimmer Lia Thomas.

“The one issue that I think 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,” Kirk said.

He continued: “We are in a church and so it’s important to remember Deuteronomy 22:5: ‘A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak.

“For whoever does these things is an abomination to the lord your god.’”

Kirk proceeded to deadname Thomas, saying she is an “abomination to god” before adding trans identities are “against the natural law”.

Make love, not war: Charlie Kirk says January 6th insurrectionists should've tried gay sex instead pic.twitter.com/GOADbLLVMR

— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) February 1, 2024

More recently, in 2024, Kirk strangely claimed insurrectionists who stormed the US Capitol in January 2021 should have had “gay sex” to avoid being arrested.

“There are hundreds of peaceful people that went into the Capitol on January 6. They did not touch a police officer. They didn’t smash a window, but they have been charged federally for trespassing and called insurrectionists for the rest of their life,” Kirk said on his show on Rumble.

“They should have stripped naked and filmed themselves having gay sex.”

Kirk was likely referencing the so-called ‘Senate Twink’ – a gay congressional staffer who was fired after he was accused of appearing in an explicit which showed two men having sex in a Senate hearing room. 

Following this, in April of that year, Kirk said: “We must ban trans-affirming care — the entire country.”

He encouraged then Republican-candidate Donald Trump, who would go on to win the election in November and subsequently sign a raft of anti-trans executive orders, to campaign on the issue.

“Donald Trump needs to run on this issue. It is a 60, 70, 80 percent issue. He’s already kinda teased this out. Something that I’m gonna pitch his team – I wanna try to get Donald Trump in a room for one hour. I’ll put it together. We’ll pay for it,” he said.

“I’ll get Doctor Miriam Grossman. I’ll get Abigail Shrier, I’ll get James Lindsay, I’ll get Erin Friday, and just for one hour, I think Donald Trump really needs to get to understand how graphic this is.”