Hat or hate?

Gay Trump supporter and Army veteran Max Guglielmelli recently spoke to KRON 4 News about wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap in the Castro district, San Francisco's gayborhood.

"I get a lot of dirty looks," says the 32-year-old former combat infantry soldier. "People behind the counter, whether I’m getting coffee or whatever, make no eye contact."

“I’ve actually had people ask me, like, ‘Do you feel safe?’ Isn’t that telling, which side is violent? Because I’m just going out there to walk.”

Guglielmelli’s boyfriend, who is also politically conservative, sometimes wears a U.S. Border Patrol hat in the Castro. “It takes a lot of guts to do that,” Guglielmelli says.

Guglielmelli enlisted in the Army at 18 and adhered to the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy. As a "hyper-left" liberal returning to California from Afghanistan, he wanted to express himself and "even did some gender-bending, wearing makeup and skirts," he recalls.

But during Trump’s 2016 campaign and first year as president, Guglielmelli started questioning his core values. "The more educated I became, the more conservative I became,” he explains. He also felt there was too much “hate” coming from gay liberals.

“They were the ones that are the most vicious," he says. "I looked inside and I was like, ‘Oh, when I was supposed to be tolerant, being a leftist, I realized I was the most intolerant.'”

Guglielmelli, who believes Trump supports LGBTQ rights, now encourages other gay citizens to vote for him in the 2020 election. "This president likes you," he says. "He’s not going to take rights away from you. He wants you to be a free American. He’s okay with gay marriage. He’s okay with gay people."

"Gays are doing great. I want a better America."