"He's talking to the wrong people": Gays For Trump Founder's Message to the President

After President Trump signed numerous executive orders rolling back LGBTQ rights this week, Peter Boykin explains why he remains a staunch supporter of the 47th president.

In 2016, Peter Boykin founded Gays For Trump, an organization created to get out the vote for gay Trump supporters. Boykin’s group was more prominent during Trump’s 2016 presidential run when they created social media campaigns and organized events like the “WAKE UP!” party at the 2016 Republican National Convention to celebrate Trump's nomination.

In Boykin’s first interview since Trump’s inauguration, he spoke with Uncloseted Media about infighting among LGBTQ Trump supporters, why he believes the President is talking to the wrong people when it comes to queer and trans issues, and why he remains a staunch advocate for Trump today.

Watch the full interview above or read the transcript here:

Spencer Macnaughton: Today. I'm here with Peter Boykin, founder and president of Gays for Trump and a conservative commentator. He also ran in the North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election in 2024, and he founded the conservative news site Go Right News. Peter, thank you so much for speaking with Uncloseted Media today.

Peter Boykin: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

SM: I know that a lot of folks watching may have never even heard of Gays for Trump before. Can you just give a little background on what it is, how and why you founded it and its history up until now?

PB: So Gays for Trump is a support group for individuals in the LGBT community, even straights, who support Donald Trump. I'm a Republican, but people of all policies, all ideas, as long as you support Donald Trump. We welcome people to have a dialogue about what's going on, and that includes some self-doubt about some of the things. You don't have to be in lockstep with the Republican Party. You can be worried about things. But me and my husband, of [many] years, we saw Donald Trump. We like Donald Trump when he was coming down the escalator. We liked him beforehand. We watched “The Apprentice” and we were excited that he finally was running for president and we felt that it could bring change. A more moderate type approach to our government, somebody who kind of understood things. And so we were happy to finally have somebody that we were excited to vote for.

SM: And how many members do you have and what type of advocacy or things do you guys do as an organization?

PB: With social media, it's kind of hard to place exactly how many members. I do know that in just one of my Facebook groups, there's over 3000-4000 individuals. We could have had a whole lot more but we're very strict on making sure that the people that come through can be verified as legit and not bots. I do have another group that's got another 3000, there might be some overflow. I have seen through the years more and more other groups created.

SM: Obviously there's an elephant in the room. The vast majority of LGBTQ people did vote against Trump and for Harris this year, he and the GOP spent more than $215 million on anti-trans ads. And in his first week since he was inaugurated on Monday, he's issued executive orders that state that there are only two genders in the eyes of the federal government, he's rolled back DEI programs and he has issued another order that has cleared the way for a ban on trans people from military service. A lot of people would look at you and say, ‘How can you create an organization called Gays for Trump? How can you stand with him when he's doing all this?’ What would your response be to all of that?

PB: There’s people in our group, that I disagree with on the transgender issue. They feel like they want nothing to do with transgenders. I still look at people as having allyship, but I've discussed this issue multiple times about the military situation. [If] you’re biological male, they're going to throw you with the women? This makes no sense.

SM: Why doesn't that make sense?

PB: You as a transgender want your liberties, right? And in this country, it's about you having your liberties, but it's also about other people having their liberties as well. So if your liberties invade other individuals' liberties, who's getting the liberty? So when you're a transgender male and you want to be thrown into a barrack of females who will feel uncomfortable [with a] biological male with them, you are taking away their rights.

SM: What actually makes people so uncomfortable with having transwomen with cisgender women in the military? I just don't fully understand the argument.

PB: I think the main point you're talking about is boot camp where people are naked in front of people. It's the same problem with women's sports and other things like that, when it comes down to locker rooms and nudity and things like that.

SM: You and I, as non-trans gay men, because the argument is that trans women might be creeping on other women, as gay men who are attracted to other naked gay men, should we have the right to be changing in front of other men or should we be in a separate category too? Because I think about that argument and think it's a slippery slope when it comes to people with same-sex attraction.

PB: It is a slippery slope. I still feel like even in school I believe that people should have the right to privacy for their bathrooms and showers and things like that. So maybe they'd have to do that. I'm not sure how they do it in the military now. I don't know if people use the open shower system or do they get individual shower systems. Yes, you might have lesbians in there who might want to get with other lesbians. You don't exactly fix the issue.

SM: Obviously, the military is one thing. But he declared that there are only two genders and those are the genders that you're assigned at birth and then also stripped away DEI programs. And there were many things that upset many LGBTQ people in this country. Did any of that frustrate you or did you think that's a good thing that happened? All of this are the moves in the right direction?

PB: I don't believe that the whole gender thing should have been something that should have been mentioned in the administration's inauguration speech. I do not think that's important. I think that is actually going overboard.

SM: My question, if I'm being honest, is why does he care so much? Thirty years ago I worry that a government would have come for my rights as a gay man. Trans people right now are the biggest underdogs in society. They're the most marginalized group. So what's the point of spending $215 million on anti-trans attack ads, five times more than he did on the economy? When these groups of folks are really marginalized and hurting and scared in many ways.

PB: Well, it's sad because the base, especially here in North Carolina, they'll yip and cheer when you talk about transgender issues because they don't understand them. They won't understand them. You have straight white males and other people basically trying to describe the things. They're hearing, misinformation from the media, etc. I don't think Donald Trump really cares, but…

SM: Well, why spend $215 million? He does care.

PB: Honestly, because he’s trying to win a race. When you go back two years ago, Donald Trump came to our North Carolina state convention. At the state convention, when he talked about transgender sports and transgenders, everybody got up and clapped and standing ovation and Donald Trump told them, right then, he said, “I see all this enthusiasm out here. I wish you actually had enthusiasm for the things that actually matter.” He literally called them out. Since he was wrongfully not put in, in 2020¹, from that period until this election, I have seen groups that were embracing Gays for Trump, embracing conservative gays, turn tail on the gay community and trash the gay community and start bringing this whole transgender mess up constantly and using that as a major point. That point has become a major point, like abortion or the [Mexico/U.S. border] wall, which is ridiculous. Bringing out the social conservative B.S. in our party, that really doesn't work, that's holding us back. And it doesn't help when a national Log Cabin group that basically gatekeeps, puts out misinformation. And you have a group called Gays Against Groomers, who was supposed to be about keeping gay people from being pedophiles or going against pedophiles. But then they use this attack on drag queens and transgenders and drag queen story hour. And getting people who don't know confused with what a drag queen is and what a transgender is and getting it all confused. Those groups are doing exactly what people kept complaining that Gays for Trump was trying to do.²

SM: That's really interesting that you bring that up. So for folks who aren't watching, explain what the Log Cabin Republicans are and talk to me a little bit about what they did in the 2024 election cycle to try and get Trump elected. What do you agree with and what do you disagree with?

PB: They were founded in 1977. They were supposed to be the largest gay conservative, basically men's group. They're mostly rich, white, gay males. They have little fancy tea parties that I can’t afford to go to. They're not about grassroots. They try to speak for the whole conservative gay community. They have the money, they have the power and yes, they did work towards some of our rights but also, at the same time, we wouldn't get there without the left groups as well working towards our rights. Previously, they had a president named Gregory. He was really good and he actually had transgenders and other people included into the Log Cabin. When they brought this Charles Moran guy in, he completely blacklisted Gays for Trump, won’t have nothing to do with me. They won’t have nothing to do with my organization and want nothing to do with grassroots and I feel like I'm blacklisted from that community. They'll claim that we don't need to have Pride anymore, we don't need to celebrate Pride and that we already have all of our rights. Which is complete B.S..

SM: Why do you think they don't like you guys?

PB: I think it's because they don't like how much we have done with little money. I have done a lot with no money. And they are in that political establishment mindset that anything you've got to do, you've got to raise money. They're more about raising money than actually doing something. They don't care if they bury the gay community. They don't care if we have rights. Hell, next thing I know, they'll probably be preaching to us to take away our right to marry. Like they truly are doing everything that I have been accused of by so many people on the left, that I've started to talk to people on the left going, “Look, I agree with you, we’ve got a lot of problems in the Republican Party.” The point of the Log Cabin was inclusion from within. And I am the only one, our group is the only one, that are doing the inclusion from within. We make a voice in our community and try to establish that there is a giant difference between the so-called leftist gays and the right-wing gays. We're standing up to say, “no, we deserve our Pride just like anybody else, we deserve our rights like anybody else, but we're not what you've been told.” Not everybody’s reading to children and twerking and stuff. There's nothing wrong with a drag queen reading to a child.

SM: Obviously, as the president of Gays for Trump, you're seen by many as an expert in this field. What kind of expertise and background do you have working with trans kids, talking to trans kids? Have you met a lot of them? Have you interacted with them?

PB: I don't call kids, trans kids. To me, if you haven't gone through puberty, you're not a trans kid or anything. You might be a queer kid because you are gender-bendy, you are exploring your gender expression but I don't believe in the phrase trans kids. You're not transitioning. You shouldn't be transitioning until you've actually gone through puberty. I think that absolutely, if you feel differently, you should have counseling, you should be able to learn things, you should have the right to have a safe spot at school, to be able to talk to a counselor. I worry about some of the bills that claim that they don't want transgenders in school, that don't want your children talking to transgenders, which makes me worried. Does that mean now we're not going to have gay clubs in school? Are transgender teachers not going to be able to be in school? Are gay teachers not going to be allowed in school? Where do we draw the line? And I don't agree with it.

SM: What would you say to Donald Trump? Because a lot of trans people are actually losing their rights right now because of executive orders—

PB: I would like to be able to talk to him. I would like to have our voice be able to talk to Donald Trump, other than these Log Cabin and Gays Against Groomers. The wrong people are talking to him and I think he needs to understand and he needs to go back to [what] he was feeling before and maybe he'll get off this a little bit, considering he has now won. But somebody needs to tell him, “Look, anybody going around saying ‘there's two genders,’ you sound like an idiot.” And there's plenty of people. I love Donald Trump to death, I go by the 80/20 [rule], and Donald Trump is wrong about that issue. He's right about so [many] other things but the social conservatism part of the Republican Party is a big problem. And if the Republican Party does not understand that they need to get away from the social conservatism and move toward the moderate part, which is the reason why Donald Trump got elected. The reason why people like Donald Trump was because he wasn’t a social conservative. He really needs to get the hell away from this social conservative crap that they've been doing lately and I'm really surprised that they have done so much on this transgender issue.

SM: Because it's a borderline human rights abuse, from my perspective, no?

PB: I'm not for our government getting into so much business and trying to make these declarations. I’m also worried, there's some accounts of trying to get rid of the affirmative action because people have gotten that confused. Because if you read LBJ’s affirmative action it was about giving people a fair shake and it had to do with merit.

SM: Getting rid of affirmative action and DEI does help folks maybe in your position who aren't as privileged. Who might not have as many resources as some of the folks you referenced in the Log Cabin Republicans, for example.

PB: I think the affirmative action is important. I think that some people have used it and thought that means that they need to hire people [who are] diverse just to hire people who are diverse. But getting rid of affirmative action is kind of doing the opposite.

It should be diversity, not equality. Not equity, equality. Diversity. Equality. Inclusion. Not equity. Equity is trying to say that just because somebody is a color or gay or whatever, that they're just on equal ground to somebody else, even though they don't have the knowledge or experience. You're hiring somebody just because of their color or their whatever, but not looking at their qualities. It's more about the merit-based. They should be looking at people no matter what color they are, or creed or religion or anything, and hiring the best person for the job.

SM: A lot of people have said, well, “Trump has never said anything anti- gay. He's not going to touch same-sex marriage.” But when you look at his cabinet, it is a little alarming when you check the track records of some of these people. Let me read you a few things: Trump's Attorney General, Pam Bondi, has opposed Florida recognizing same-sex marriages performed in another state. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said in the past that, “The movement to legitimize the homosexual lifestyle and homosexual marriages is strong and must be vigorously opposed.” And other cabinet members, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and head of Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, have aggressively opposed same-sex marriage. Does that concern you at all? Because that has nothing to do with the ‘TQ’ that has to do with gay and lesbian and bisexual rights.

PB: The Supreme Court has made the decision. It is now also the law of the land. It is a law. It is not changing. No matter how much these people, those individuals, didn't like it³ they're going to have to deal with it. It's not changing. And unfortunately, you're going to find a lot of those individuals in the Republican Party right now that felt like that. But [it’s] people like myself and people in my group that need to stand up. We have to change our party to be more of an inclusive party and start getting rid of the old regime that believed like that and start living in the 21st century and wake up and realize that that social conservative stuff is not going to work. And I know that things are changing. There's more people that have families that have gay people and relatives that have gay people. And I've seen plenty of Republicans who post under there going, “I did not vote for that. I voted for this. We voted for Trump because of this.” But [that’s not to] say we're going to go and turn towards the Democrat Party, because at the end of the day, we have to weigh which policies are good and which policies are bad and I've laid out those on Gays for Trump about the policies that do help the LGBT community. Unfortunately, some things are bad, but we have to not give up and we have to fight against that.

SM: In Idaho two weeks ago, they introduced a resolution to re-evaluate Obergefell and overturn same-sex marriage, leaving it up to the states. There are similar resolutions being drafted in five other states and it's following a very similar playbook to how Roe v. Wade was eventually overturned. Does that concern you at all?

PB: No. It's been signed. It's been sealed. It's been decided on the Supreme Court. There is absolutely no reason for them to try to switch it and in most of the cases, when these people bring it up, they bring up their only merit based on religion. Our First Amendment has us the right to separation of church and state, freedom from religion and freedom of religion and if your only status is you don't like gay marriage just because of a religious [view], then it doesn't fly. So I'm not worried about it. That's what they base it on: religion, and we are not a Christian nation. We are a nation of all religions and we're not a theocracy. We are a constitutional republic/democracy.

SM: I think a lot of people were saying the same thing about Roe v. Wade before it was overturned but I hear you. Trump has rolled back a lot of protections for transgender people. He has appointed a bunch of Cabinet members who are explicitly opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage. If you could speak to Trump right now in this critical moment, as he has four years to lead this nation, what would you say to him as it relates to how he approaches LGBTQ issues over the course of this next term?

PB: I think he needs to talk to more people. He needs to talk to more sources. He doesn't have to openly cause a rift, but he needs to understand that everything he does, it's great, you can Make America Great Again, but if you continue down this path of letting the Republican Party stay socially conservative the way they are and keep doing what they're doing, they're going to lose. They're going to lose, the Democrats will win and they will destroy America. And at the end of the day, if we don't get candidates like Donald Trump in the future, we’re doomed, we are doomed.

SM: And tell me a little bit more about your own coming out story. When did you realize you were gay? How old were you?

PB: Probably seven. Watching what’s that video? Take On Me, little sweaty British guy was beating against the wall. You know.

SM: I don’t remember it, but I got it. I understand, I have a comparative experience I'm sure. Having known that since you were seven, and I know for any kid it's not easy to understand that you might be a little different, there are a ton of LGBTQ kids right now across this country who are really scared. 41% of LGBTQ kids seriously considered suicide in the last year and it's arguably getting worse with these new rollbacks. What would your message be to LGBTQ kids right now who are really scared?

PB: Well, they need to find counseling and they need find people to talk to and try to find people to talk to. I try to look at things at different angles and do a whole picture of the story. I try not to overreact, I try to look into the bills and yes, if there's something important, they need to take that energy to try to make change and protest. It does not do any good for them to hurt themselves. Self-harm is not ever an answer.

SM: And last question for those kids who say, “Peter, I'm really scared, Trump is rolling back my rights, you're the president of Gays for Trump, how can you feel this way?” What do you say to them?

PB: I’m would say we can always talk. They need to talk to individuals who are outside of their range. We have so much diverse feelings and opinions, and if they’re going to talk to me, I'm going to talk to them as best as I can. And I'm here, even though they don't think I am. Yes, I do worry about some things changing but we also got to worry that those individuals, once Trump is gone, it could get a lot worse. If we don't do something or try to reach out—Again, it's all about inclusion from within. You can yell on the street all day long, but unless you got a foot in the boardroom, you're not going to make any changes. So we've got to get our voice out there in the proper way.

SM: Thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate it. Your perspective is obviously different and at the same time valuable because it's important to understand where all folks across the entire country are coming from and how and why they feel the way they do. So, thank you.

PB: Thank you.

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1. Trump’s drumbeat of lies about the 2020 election keeps getting louder. Here are the facts. (AP)

2. The Log Cabin Republicans did not respond to Uncloseted Media’s request for comment on Peter Boykin’s remarks.

3. The Pete Hegseth quote included in the question was not directly from Hegseth himself. Rather, while Hegseth served as publisher of Princeton’s conservative campus newspaper, The Princeton Tory, an editor’s note titled “The Rant” outlined the publication’s anti-gay views and included the said quote.