What exact quotes has Charlie Kirk made about gay people and when were they said?
Executive summary
Charlie Kirk has repeatedly made a mix of explicitly condemnatory, theologically framed, and politically charged remarks about gay people and LGBTQ issues across podcast episodes, speeches and campus encounters from at least 2019 through 2025; the most widely cited exact lines include a 2019 statement on marriage, an invocation of Leviticus as “God’s perfect law” in mid‑2024, and several accusatory claims about LGBTQ activism in 2022 and later [1] [2] [3]. Reporting on his remarks comes from a range of outlets with differing editorial perspectives, including Reuters, The Guardian, BBC, The Independent, Wikipedia and LGBTQ media — each source documents specific quotes while some lack precise timestamps [3] [4] [5] [6] [1] [2].
1. “I believe marriage is one man, one woman” — a 2019 baseline
On November 22, 2019, Kirk stated plainly, “I believe marriage is one man, one woman,” while also saying that gay people “should be allowed in the conservative movement,” a formulation captured in background summaries of his public remarks and recorded on his Wikipedia entry [1]. That line is often cited as the baseline for his public stance: formally opposing same‑sex marriage while claiming a degree of inclusion for gay conservatives [1] [5].
2. Invoking Leviticus: “God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters” — June 2024
Multiple outlets report that in June 2024 Kirk invoked a Bible verse about stoning gay people and described the chapter as affirming “God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters,” a formulation reported by Advocate and repeated in summaries in other outlets [2] [6]. Some sources narrow the appearance to a June 8, 2024 episode of his podcast, where he criticized a children’s content creator and cited Leviticus language as prescriptive [1] [2]. Available reporting records the quoted phrase but does not always reproduce the full contiguous transcript; the cited characterization — that he invoked a verse endorsing execution and labeled the chapter “God’s perfect law” — is consistently attributed across sources [2] [1] [6].
3. “Gay couples … now want to corrupt your children” — April 2022
Reuters and other outlets quote Kirk from April 2022 asserting that gay couples “are not happy just having marriage. Instead, they now want to corrupt your children,” a claim he made on his program while criticizing the implications of the Obergefell decision and modern LGBT advocacy [3]. That phrasing has been cited widely as an example of his rhetoric that frames LGBTQ visibility and education as aggressive or harmful to children [3].
4. Campus encounters, one‑on‑one comments and disparaging examples
Reporting documents more colloquial and personalized remarks: The Independent recounts Kirk telling a gay Wisconsin college student last September, “I don’t agree with your lifestyle,” and “I don’t think you should introduce yourself just based on your sexuality because that’s not who you are,” an account tied to a campus interaction reported in late 2025 coverage [6]. Separately, The Guardian quotes him using a mocking rhetorical list that included “If you’re a WNBA, pot‑smoking, Black lesbian, do you get treated better than a United States marine?” — a phrase that mixes gender, race and sexuality in a disparaging rhetorical device [4]. Those pieces are drawn from onstage exchanges and media appearances; some source articles supply dates, others summarize past remarks [6] [4].
5. Other related lines and context: inflation, trans issues, and punitive imagery
Kirk linked LGBTQ topics to unrelated policy claims — for example, he tied trans issues to economic themes in an April 2022 podcast episode, saying there was “a direct connection to inflation and the trans issue,” a linkage reported by Advocate and Reuters as part of his broader anti‑LGBTQ commentary [2] [3]. He also reportedly suggested in February 2024 that January 6 rioters would have been treated more leniently had they filmed gay sex inside the Capitol, a provocative hypothetical cited in LGBT‑focused reporting [2]. These lines illustrate how his remarks about gay people appeared within broader rhetorical strategies linking morality, law and culture [2] [3].
6. Sourcing, agendas and limits of the record
The record of exact phrasing relies on a mix of direct quotes shown in contemporaneous reporting and summarized reconstructions in obituary and profile pieces; Reuters, The Guardian, BBC and The Independent each document verbatim lines, while Advocate and Wikipedia compile episodes and dates [3] [4] [5] [6] [2] [1]. Some outlets are explicitly focused on LGBTQ advocacy and emphasize the harm of his rhetoric, which shapes selection and framing [2] [7], while mainstream outlets document the same quotations in broader reporting on his career [3] [4]. Where sources do not provide minute‑by‑minute transcripts, exact punctuation or full context for every utterance, this summary notes the most widely reported direct quotes and the dates or periods those outlets assign to them [2] [1] [3].