Trending
- ‘God Is In This Play:’ ASF World Premiere ‘KUDZU CALLING’ Illuminates Black Southern LGBTQ Experience
- Visibility Is So 2016: A Queer Muslim Artist on WTF Happens Next
- LOUDER TOGETHER: OUTLOUD Music Festival at WeHo Pride Is a Rallying Cry for Queer Joy and Resistance
- American Consumers Support Corporate Pride Engagement
- GLAAD Down South Brings Atlanta-based Advocates, Journalists Together for Annual Event
- WATCH: King Princess and Maisie Richardson-Sellers Take a “Trip”, Talk the Toxic Love Between Their Queer Characters in ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ Season 2
- 5 AAPI Trailblazers in Politics Paving the Way for Future AAPI Generations
- Out in the Vineyard Founder Gary Saperstein Talks Gay Wine Weekend; Celebrating the Resilience of the LGBTQ Community
Choose from the complete list of GLAAD Accountability Profiles:
Photo credit: Don Irvine Photos via Foter.com / CC BY-SA
Steve Bannon
Former White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor
Conservative Commentator
—Praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government for its homophobia and transphobia. In conversation with Erik Prince, founder of the military contracting firm Blackwater USA (and brother of Trump’s Education secretary, Betsy DeVos) on his podcast War Room, “Putin ain’t woke. He is anti-woke,” Bannon said, to which Prince responded, “The Russian people still know which bathroom to use.” Bannon asked how many genders there are in Russia; “Two,” said Prince. Bannon further praised Russia for not flying LGBTQ Pride flags, and Prince noted, “They don’t have boys swimming in girls’ college swim meets,” a reference to transgender athletes. “How savage,” Bannon said sarcastically. “How medieval.” Putin is notorious for enacting the “gay propaganda” law in 2013, which prohibits any mention of LGBTQ issues or identities in venues accessible to minors, effectively banning Pride parades and further fomenting anti-LGBTQ sentiment in a nation without a free press.
—Launched a secret plan devised by Chris Gacek, a former congressional staffer and an official at the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council, to infiltrate Facebook and place a mole in the company. “Flood the zone with candidates of all stripe [sic] who will report back to you / Milo with INTEL about the job application process over at FB,” Gacek emailed to Bannon about job openings at Facebook. Bannon assigned then-Breitbart news tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos to the task of sending, emailing “Can u get on this.”
—While at Breitbart, devised the term “Big Gay Hate Machine” to target LGBTQ activists and organizations as a way of attacking the political left. His first foray into this was an article by Austin Ruse attacking the legacy of Matthew Shepard, the 19-year-old gay man who was murdered in 1998 and became the namesake of anti-discrimination legislation and a national symbol. “Almost everything you think you know about the Matthew Shepard narrative is false,” that his story was “hagiography” and a lie, and proof that “the agenda of the sexual left lives on lies.”
—Bragged that under his chairmanship, Breitbart became “the platform for the alt-right.” Former Breitbart writer Ben Shapiro says Bannon “allowed the site to be taken over and used by a bunch of alt-right people who are not fond of Jews, are not fond of minorities.”
—Boasted of Breitbart’s influence: “On the social conservative side, we’re the voice of the anti-abortion movement, the voice of the traditional marriage movement, and I can tell you we’re winning victory after victory after victory.”
—Under his chairmanship, Breitbart became known for headlines such as “Trannies 49Xs Higher HIV Rate,” “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy,” “Hoist it high and proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage” and “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew.” The site also purposely misgenders prominent transgender activists.
—Claimed Target’s inclusivity of transgender individuals seeks “to exclude people who are decent, hard-working people who don’t want their four-year-old daughter to have to go into a bathroom with a guy with a beard in a dress.”
—Decried progressive women as “a bunch of dykes that came from the Seven Sisters schools up in New England.”
—After Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson made a spate of anti-gay comments, Bannon gave him an award: “Phil and his family have been that breath of fresh air Hollywood desperately needed. They are taking their faith and conservative politics mainstream. Phil has the guts to do and say what most politicians in Washington won’t: You must adhere to your conservative beliefs, all of them, and never surrender or compromise them for anyone. We are proud supporters of the Robertsons.
—Invited author Robert Reilly onto his Breitbart radio show in order to promote Reilly’s aggressively anti-LGBTQ propaganda book, Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior is Changing Everything.
The GLAAD Accountability Project catalogs anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discriminatory actions of politicians, commentators, organization heads, religious leaders, and legal figures, who have used their platforms, influence and power to spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.
Related Posts
Donald Trump
47th Presidency 05.07.2025 Marked dozens of National Park Service grants for elimination, including a $58,000…
Linda McMahon
—Without basis announced that the University of Pennsylvania had violated sex discrimination laws by allowing…
Pete Hegseth
—Said, “No more pronouns. No more climate change obsession. No more emergency vaccine mandates. No…
Nancy Mace
—Verbally attacked witnesses at a DOGE subcommittee saying during testimony, “You all are groomers.” The…
Share this
Join GLAAD and take action for acceptance.
ALERT Desk Incident Reporting
Our Picks
American Consumers Support Corporate Pride Engagement
GLAAD Down South Brings Atlanta-based Advocates, Journalists Together for Annual Event
Aruna Rao Speaks on Breaking Cycles and Building Safe Spaces for LGBTQ South Asians
GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index Unveils How Tech Companies Intentionally Rolled Back Safety Policies For LGBTQ People
Topics
Follow Us
Don't Miss
GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index Unveils How Tech Companies Intentionally Rolled Back Safety Policies For LGBTQ People
Today, GLAAD has announced the findings of its fifth annual Social Media Safety Index (SMSI),…
WATCH: ‘The Daily Show’s’ Jordan Klepper Interviews Transgender Soldiers: “If more people met trans people like us, then there would be no issue.”
How Event Producer Jake Resnicow Is Turning the WorldPride Music Festival Into a Power Statement: ‘Our Lineup Is a Protest’
Trans Navy Veteran on CNN: “There’s never been a military standard that transgender people have not met.”