Anti-trans Republican accused of hypocrisy after reports he followed queer porn star
Bill Berrien is running to be governor of Wisconsion. (Bill Berrien Campaign / YouTube)
Bill Berrien is running to be governor of Wisconsion. (Bill Berrien Campaign / YouTube)
An anti-trans Republican running for governor in Wisconsin on a family values platform has been revealed to have followed several sexually explicit accounts online, including one belonging to a non-binary adult performer.
Earlier this week the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported 56-year-old businessman and former Navy SEAL Bill Berrien, a GOP candidate for governor, has an account on the publishing platform Medium that followed several sexually explicit profiles – and which has subsequently unfollowed them after the outlet asked about it.
The accounts being followed included Polyamorary Today, Sexography and Jiz Lee, a non-binary author and adult performer.
On Berrien’s campaign website he touts his conservative, anti-trans values in his “Wisconsin First Agenda” which includes stating he will “defend parents’ rights, push back on the left’s radical agenda, and refocus education on the values Wisconsin families believe in”.
He further details this by describing parental rights in the state as “under attack” and claiming “our daughters’ sports teams and locker rooms are at risk because of radical social experimentation” in reference to trans people.
His promises as governor pledge to: “Be a warrior for parents’ rights — to know what their kids are seeing, hearing and learning, to have a say, and to play the primary role in their children’s lives” and “Stop the craziness, defend women’s sports and keep biological boys out of girls’ sports and locker rooms”.
In a recent television ad for his campaign Berrien said: “Take it from a dad and a coach, I will keep boys out of our daughters’ sports and locker rooms”.
In response to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a spokesperson for Berrien said it is “absurd” to suggest he knew “about a particular author’s personal choices or by reading one article by an author would agree with everything else they wrote”.
“We read Dan Bice [the author of the article] all the time, and we have no idea about his personal choices.”
The spokesperson added: “It is also absurd to suggest that reading articles about sex as a happily married adult man with three children is in any way out of line with conservative Catholic values.”
“It’s okay to follow trans porn stars – what’s not okay is the hypocrisy”
In a separate statement issued to the Associated Press the GOP candidate downplayed concerns about his anti-trans views not meshing with his online reading habits.
“There are a lot of important issues that are affecting our state and nation,” he said told the outlet in a statement, “but what is the mainstream media focused on right now? Some stupid articles I read years ago, not the plans I have to reindustrialize our state, turn the economy around, and bring prosperity for all through work.”
On X, formerly Twitter, Berrien labelled the media reporting on his Medium account “garbage political hits” and said “they came after me with the same failed attacks they tried with President Trump”, adding such coverage “didn’t slow President Trump down, and the Democrats and the media’s latest attempts to keep me out of this fight won’t work either”.
On BlueSky, Jiz Lee – one the accounts Berrien was followed – shared the original article and wrote: “It’s okay to follow trans porn stars. It’s okay to read articles about sex and relationships. What’s not okay is the hypocrisy of backing forceful legislation that restricts what people, trans and otherwise, can do with their own bodies. That is shameful.”
This is certainly not the first time a Republican’s online activity has not reflected their conservative politics.
Last year firebrand Republican Mark Robinson – who became notorious for his vile comments about LGBTQ+ people, school shooting victims and members of the Jewish and Muslim communities – lost the race to be North Carolina’s governor months after shocking comments he allegedly made on a porn website were revealed.
Back in September 2024, a bombshell investigative report by CNN alleged an account which was linked with Robinson posted a variety of contentious comments related to sexual and racial topics on the message board of a porn website called Nude Africa more than a decade previous.
The comments included Robinson referring to himself a “black NAZI!”, labelling civil rights leader Martin Luther King a “f*cking commie bastard”, “worse than a maggot,” a “ho f**king, phony,” and a “huckster”, and detailing his interest in transgender adult content – despite his political policies being firmly anti-trans.
“I like watching t****y on girl porn! That’s f**king hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in!” the account is said to have written on the website. “And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!”.
Prior to the scandal coming to light, Robinson publicly stated straight people are “superior” to LGBTQ+ people and that trans people are the work of the antichrist, he spread fake news about five-year-olds having gender-affirming surgeries, attacked the LGBTQ+ Pride flag and described LGBTQ+ identities as “that filth”.
In the wake of the scandal, Robinson’s top staffers stepped away from his campaign.
