Politics

Who is George Santos? Where does he stand on LGBTQ issues?

The scandal-ridden New Yorker is a typical Republican when it comes to his anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs.
By
WASHINGTON, DC - September 30, 2023: U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) leaves the Capitol after voting no on a bill to avert a government shutdown.
U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) Photo: Shutterstock

George Anthony Devolder Santos (R-NY) achieved infamy for lying extensively about his biography and being charged with 23 criminal counts connected to several allegedly fraudulent schemes to enrich himself. Despite being gay, he holds numerous anti-gay and transphobic viewpoints that align him with anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans in his party’s far-right wing.

George Santos At a Glance

  • Location: New York
  • Party Affiliation: Republican
  • Race/Ethnicity: Brazilian-American
  • Gender Identity: Male
  • Sexual Orientation: Gay
  • Pronouns: He/Him
  • LGBTQ+ Ally: No

Social Media

Related:

George Santos blames war in Ukraine for not being able to prove his background

“Nobody elected me because I played volleyball!” he said, referring to how he lied about playing volleyball in college.

Biography

Santos was born on July 22, 1988, in Queens, New York to Brazilian immigrants. He attended elementary school at the Primary School 122 in Astoria, Queens and middle school at the Intermediate School 125 in Woodside, Queens. From 2008 to 2011, he moved with his mother to the city of Niterói in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. There, he occasionally appeared as a drag queen named Kitara Ravache and stole and cashed checks that belonged to a man that his mother cared for.

He eventually returned to New York City and worked as a customer service representative at a call center for Dish Network in 2010. He worked for the hotel booking service HotelsPro sometime after 2013 and moved to Orlando, Florida in 2016. He worked as a freelancer for LinkBridge Investors, a “closed-door conference” company for investors, in 2017.

Santos mounted an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. House in 2019 and claimed the election had been rigged. That same year, he served as president of United for Trump, a New York-based group supporting then-President Donald Trump. The following year, Santos worked as regional director of Harbor City Capital — the company was later accused of stealing over $6 million of its investors’ money, though Santos was never named in any lawsuits over the actions and he denied knowledge of any wrongdoing.

After April 2021, Santos founded the Devolder Organization, a company he called a “capital introduction consulting” firm. Questions surround the business’ actual monetary value and its place of operation. He also founded GADS PAC to raise money for his successful second run for the U.S. House.

During his second run, he falsely claimed that Trump endorsed him and he also lied about extensive parts of his biography. Though the Republican National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee both had reports of his extensive falsehoods, neither acted on it, and Santos won his race, later admitting to some falsehoods and claiming that he lied because of his “insecurity” and “stupidity.”

A federal court has charged Santos with 23 federal criminal counts. He has denied all the charges and announced his re-election campaign for 2024.

Santos’ stance on LGBTQ+ issues

Despite being gay, Santos has said that he’s against the “rainbow mafia” and has advocated for “divorcing” trans and queer people from the movement for gay, lesbian, and bisexual people’s rights. As such, his rhetoric is similar to transphobic Republicans who accuse “radical” LGBTQ+ people of trying to “indoctrinate” others. Despite this, he did once introduce a bill to cut foreign aid to countries with anti-gay laws.

Same-sex marriage

Following the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in September 2023, Santos mentioned a husband named Matt. Web searches found no mention of him by name prior to that time. Notably, Santos neither wore a wedding ring nor brought his alleged spouse to his swearing-in ceremony when he was inducted into the U.S. House in January 2021, even though it’s customary for new House members to invite their spouses to the ceremony. However, Santos was seen wearing the engagement ring while addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition on November 19, 2020.

In December 2022, when gay Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) wrote to Santos via X, formerly Twitter, that over 100 House Republicans voted against federal recognition of same-sex marriages, Santos responded, “Sorry to tell you that not all gays think alike. I challenge your antiquated thought process & reject your disdain for my beliefs.”

While he didn’t elaborate at that time on his beliefs, during a 2020 interview on Indivisible with John Stubbins, Santos said that same-sex couples and parents are harmful to children and undermine the family.

“The family unit has been under attack for decades in different ways,” Santos said. “The flavor of the decade is same-sex couples. They’re teaching in schools that kids don’t need a mommy and a daddy, you can have two mommies and two daddies. That’s an attack on the family unit. I think that’s a little much for kids.”

Trans children in sports

In April 2023, Santos voted in favor of the so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, a bill that would ban transgender female athletes of all ages from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams.

“The Biden Administration has chosen to abandon women and give an unfair advantage to transgender athletes who were born as a biological male and compete with female athletes,” Santos wrote, adding that the bill “safeguards opportunities for women and girls to excel in sports on a fair playing field and keeping the far-left radical agenda from infringing upon our schools.”

He justified his support of the bill, writing, “To say that this discriminates against transgender athletes is an understatement, it simply robs women of their hard-earned athletic achievements.”

Transgender access to public bathrooms

In February 2023, Santos co-sponsored H.R. 115, a bill that would redefine “sex” and gendered terms like “man” and “mother” to be based on the sex a person was assigned at birth. The bill would undo any trans-protections based on sex in all federal civil rights legislation and also explicitly allow laws that discriminate based on sex as long as they “serve an important governmental objective.”

Santos has said that Trump did more for the LGBTQ+ “community than his predecessors” despite Trump’s efforts to undermine trans rights. Trump rolled back protections for trans students in February 2017, including the right for them to use school bathrooms matching their gender identity and to serve openly in the military.

Don’t say gay/LGBTQ+ discussions in schools

Santos has voiced support for Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law and made it clear he believes discussions of LGBTQ+ people should be banned in schools. In a 2022 video supporting the law, Santos said it would “protect our children’s innocence” and “protect values.” He has also said that teachers should educate but not “indoctrinate” students, repeating a common right-wing term against LGBTQ+-inclusive classroom discussions and policies.

Santos has also cosponsored two anti-LGBTQ+ bills in his few months in Congress. One of the bills calls for banning books that it says promote “the sexualization of children in schools,” a common dog whistle for books by LGBTQ+ authors.

Same-sex couple adoption

Santos has said that same-sex parents create “troubled individuals” because children need a mother and father to create “equilibrium and balance.”

“[A mother and father in the same household] creates stability, and stability raises good individuals who are independent thinkers,” he said in a 2020 interview. “When we have instability in the family unit, you wreak havoc. One parent can’t parent two kids as well as two parents, and there’s always that feminine touch to boys from the mother and that masculine touch to boys from the father, same thing goes for the daughters.”

“The scales are tipped and there’s nobody left there and you have just one-side, you start creating troubled individuals,” he continued. “Troubled individuals are easier to manipulate and [inaudible] and they buy pretty much anything.”

Santos’ career

  • Appeared in drag as “Kitara Ravache“
  • Worked as a Dish Network customer service representative in 2010
  • Worked for HotelsPro after 2013
  • Worked as a freelancer for LinkBridge Investors in 2017
  • Unsuccessfully ran for U.S. House in 2019
  • Served as president of United for Trump in 2019
  • Worked as regional director of Harbor City Capital in 2020
  • Founded the Devolder Organization in April 2021
  • Elected to U.S. House in 2022

In conclusion

While Santos’ numerous falsehoods and financial fraud charges have overshadowed his political career, his transphobia and opposition to same-sex families and LGBTQ+-inclusion in schools align perfectly with the modern-day Republican party.

Stay informed about his career by subscribing to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter.

Related articles

Related:

George Santos blames war in Ukraine for not being able to prove his background

“Nobody elected me because I played volleyball!” he said, referring to how he lied about playing volleyball in college.

George Santos’s campaign is losing money because no one wants to donate to him

He got less than $2,000 in the last quarter. Yikes.

George Santos dated teenagers & catfished on apps as a man who spurned him

He reportedly dated a high school student when he was 26 years old.

Don't forget to share:
Politics
adoption book ban book banning book bans Candidate Navigator Don't Say Gay gay adoption gay adoption discrimination George Santos LGBTQ search same-sex marriage trans sports trans sports ban transgender athletes transgender sports bans

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Once Monthly Annually

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

Fox Nation gives anti-LGBTQ+ group “Most Valuable Patriot” award

Previous article

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear tells Jen Psaki that trans kids are “children of God”

Next article

More in Politics