In remarks to The Daily Beast,
Gays for Trump founder Peter Boykin talked about his opposition to
transgender people serving openly in the military.
Late last month, Boykin, a Republican,
announced his campaign to unseat incumbent North Carolina state
Representative Amos Quick, an African-American Democrat who was first
elected to serve the people of the 58th district in 2015.
Boykin and his husband David Smith, who
is African-American, followed President Donald Trump as he campaigned
for the White House. At campaign rallies, they would wear “Make
America Great Again” hats and rainbow-colored “Gays for Trump”
t-shirts.
Boykin told The Daily Beast that
he's opposed to transgender troops because they “would be our
weakest link.”
“As long as there are troops and
veterans out there who are not getting the care that they should... I
couldn't care less about transgender [people] getting an elective
surgery,” Boykin
said.
“People already have enough problems
with PTSD. I don't think it's a good idea to give someone going
through that type of change a weapon. They might snap and turn it on
their fellow soldiers,” he said.
Last year, Trump announced a complete
ban on transgender people serving openly in the military. Trump
first proposed the ban on Twitter, then asked the Pentagon to
implement it. Opponents have temporarily blocked implementation
through the courts.
Boykin, 40, also defended Trump's
record on LGBT rights.
“He is not against the gays at all,”
he said. “He is for all Americans and protecting all Americans.
Donald Trump has always been pro-LGBT. He owned pageants, hotels, he
works with gay people.”
The 40-year-old Trump supporter also
revealed that when he was in his early twenties he worked as an adult
model for the defunct porn site “Pete's Young and Wild Adventures
in a Gay Wonderland.” Boykin would masturbate for men who paid
$29.95 per month.
While he told The Daily Beast
that he was not “ashamed” about his sex worker past, Boykin
quickly distanced himself, saying that it was “not something [he]
would do today.” He added that he was “just a guy with a webcam”
and not a porn star.