‘They said I deserved death for leaving the pro-Palestine movement’: Gay Trump voter reveals his ex-liberal past

Micheal Carr, a 35-year-old Pennsylvania resident, was a lifelong liberal. At a young age, he became active in far-left political movements–including Occupy Wall Street and, later, Queers for Palestine. When he began to question the rhetoric of his own side he faced an unnerving backlash from his peers. He now says he’s voting for Donald Trump.

Here, he tells Outspoken’s Peter Lloyd his story — including why his experiences drove him to the right.

I grew up lapse-Catholic in New Jersey. Religion was never a big thing at home, but the local community was pretty Jewish, and I liked much of that culture. 

I knew I was gay in high school, and this made me lean left when it came to politics. Back then, I figured there was no other option for gays but to be a liberal Democrat.

This misguided belief only intensified when I went to Rutgers University in 2010. There, I was studying feminist theory and post-colonialism, which created the perfect intersectional storm.

Soon, I got involved with a number of campaigns, such as Occupy Wall Street, and through these I met several Palestinian-American Muslims. They were all very passionate in their beliefs and, as a naive young mind, I found them intellectually stimulating. They dazzled me with their worldview and, in particular, the claim that Israel manipulates gay people through a process called ‘pinkwashing’, in which it hides its (alleged) human rights abuses by appearing pro-LGBT.

I faithfully believed them.

Over the course of several months I became radicalized by their rhetoric. However, I never saw the agenda as being extreme. To me, I was on the right side of history and against imperialism.

During this time a new activist group formed called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, which was an early incarnation of Queers For Palestine. I became a member and we regularly took to the streets to make ourselves heard, often chanting ‘From the river to the sea’ while waving Palestinian flags. At one point we had a big presence at New York City Pride, which got us a lot of attention when we were joined by Omar Barghouti, the controversial co-founder of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, which aims to dismantle Israel. 

Away from the streets, I was also in a group called Students for Justice in Palestine, which used workshops to spread the pinkwashing theory and help turn people against Israel. Many deemed us militant, and with good reason. My fellow members would regularly call Jews ‘zionist pigs’ or ‘swine’ (‘alkhanazir’ in arabic), and demand an end to the Jewish state, but they convinced me it was justified. 

They also taught me that dialogue is a zionist trap, so we actively sought to shut dissenters down at every opportunity. Once, when our college had a guest speaker on Israel’s LGBT rights, we infiltrated the audience and verbally attacked them until they fled campus. 

Other times, our objective was simply to intimidate Jews. When we marched, we loved nothing better than seeing a man in hassidic dress fearing for his safety. That was our marker of success.

Looking back now, I’m deeply ashamed of my actions, but I was simply in too deep to think rationally. I had been ideologically captured, and I truly believed that we were the good guys.

This mindset continued for many years until I got an unlikely awakening courtesy of rapper Kanye West. I kid you not. 

When he made a string of anti-semitic comments in 2022, I began looking at all the reactions from his Twitter critics. Instantly, my algorithm began showing me more and more similar content, which exposed me to a whole new narrative. 

Initially, I fought against what they were saying. First, I didn’t want to admit that I’d been wrong for so many years, or that I’d been used as a useful idiot by a malign mob. Second, I didn’t want to alienate myself from my peers, who I believed were my friends. Third, I didn’t want to be called a racist or an Islamophobe.

However, I could only fight the truth for so long. 

When the October 7 massacre happened in 2023, I was appalled. I desperately wanted my fellow activists to share my horror, but the opposite was true. They celebrated it. They also excused it, saying violence was the price of revolution. 

I was disgusted.

I immediately removed myself from the frontline and, as a result, my peers got suspicious. They quickly accused me of abusing my ‘white privilege’, and of being a traitor to the cause.

This continued for weeks and even escalated into threats of violence. Once, while in a gay bar, I was warned never to go back – or face a brutal beating. Another time, I was told that I deserved a social death for my so-called apostasy. 

I felt utterly betrayed, yet also incredibly stupid. How could I have been so blind to their propaganda and mind control? How could I have entertained so much hatred for my fellow people? After all, wasn’t I supposed to be a liberal?

I was the opposite of a true liberal. I had become a bigot without even realizing it.

Now, as America goes into another election, I am proud to say that I am a completely different person. I converted to Judaism and am a proud zionist. 

I am also considering voting for Trump. Why? Because he is a better choice for Israel and, in turn, the West. 

So, if there are gay voters out there who remain undecided, I urge them to wake up. Chances are they’ve no clue what’s happening in the Middle East and are being manipulated by bad actors who loathe the West, including America.

Don’t make the mistakes I made. Read Hamas’s charter and you’ll see red. 

Then, I urge you all to consider voting red.