When Your Adolescent Sexual Fantasy Turns Out To Be A Bigot: Kevin Sorbo Edition
It’s becoming increasingly hard to hold onto the celebrity fantasies of my youth: First Scott Baio came out swinging for Trump, then Antonio Sabato Jr. did the same. Dean Cain, Superman himself, has been making the rounds defending the president against accusations of racism and incompetence.
The latest idol to fall is Kevin Sorbo, the muscular star of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys from 1995 to 1999.
Sorbo's Olympian was beefier than my preferred heartthrobs, but in the pre-Internet 90s shirtless hunks were tough to come by, so I took what I could get. And it's not like he was hard to look at or anything.
It turns out Sorbo will be speaking at the anti-gay Value Voters Summit next month, alongside Kirk Cameron, Michelle Bachmann, and Donald Trump himself. The annual conference is sponsored by the Family Research Council, which essentially exists to fight LGBT rights. (The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled FRC a homophobic hate group in 2010.)
Lest you think Sorbo signed up without knowing what he was getting into, he's been an outspoken Trump supporter for some time—and even claimed Jesus would have voted for Trump.
"Look at Hillary. Does Jesus, does God, support lying? Does He support killing?" he asked on Fox News in August 2016. "I'm not saying she's a killer, but she let people die in Benghazi."
He's has also claimed Hollywood is run by Jews and defended racially profiling Muslims, insisting, "If they have nothing to hide, why do they get upset about stuff?"
Sorbo, who also starred in the sci-fi series Andromeda and the films Kull the Conquerer and Sorority Party Massacre claims being conservative has damaged his career.
“My faith certainly hurt me in Hollywood. I did Hercules for seven years, it was the most watched show for a good number of years. But then, for me to get called in to read for anything, it just dropped drastically when I came out of that conservative Christian closet.”
Yes, he used a "coming out of the closet" metaphor.
Sorbo's alliance with anti-LGBT forces like Trump and FRC is even more galling considering he owes his most recent gig to a gay man: The 58-year-old played Lar Gand, an alien king, on Season 2 of Supergirl.
That's the same show where fellow bigot Dean Cain plays Kara Zor-El's adoptive father, Jeremiah. I guess Greg Berlanti is more forgiving that some.