A prominent school privatization activist who has been praised by former President Donald Trump and who has contributed to Project 2025 has spoken out for the first time after videos surfaced that appeared to show his involvement in gay pornographic videos earlier this month.
“As an activist for parental rights and school choice, my passion is personal,” Corey DeAngelis wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday morning. “I was a victim of poor decisions and poor influences. I have turned that experience into the fuel that fires me to save young people from being put in the same position I was put in and to help parents protect their children.”
Earlier this month, a blog called Str8 Up Gay Porn, which shares reviews of gay porn and articles about the adult entertainment industry, first reported that a person who resembles DeAngelis appeared in several gay adult films.
The performer, who appears under the name “Seth Rose,” is in at least three gay adult films on the pornography website GayHoopla, dating to 2014. In the videos, “Rose,” appears masturbating solo and alongside other men.
DeAngelis’ post on Monday appears to acknowledge his appearance in these films, and that he was a “victim of poor decisions.” His post went out to his 163,000 followers on X, and received praise from conservative writers like Richard Hanania and Chris Rufo, who is largely credited with fabricating the panic over critical race theory.
DeAngelis has been a fierce critic of what he views as “pornographic” content in school literature, often referring to any education materials that include discussion of LGBTQ+ people and their experiences.
The day that Str8 Up Gay Porn posted its blog, DeAngelis shared a graphic on X illustrating a satirical lesson plan of the “radical left” in 2024, including “drag queen story hours,” “mandatory pronoun recognition,” and “boys participating in girls sports.”
DeAngelis did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment though he did post a screenshot of this reporter’s inquiry to X, and said that the article is “a hit piece against me because I don’t want porn in schools.”
The self described “school choice evangelist” is also listed as a contributor to Project 2025 on behalf of the American Federation for Children. Project 2025 is a policy roadmap for a second Trump presidency, authored by the Heritage Foundation and a network of conservative organizations.
Sarah Kate Ellis, the president of LGBTQ+ advocacy group, GLAAD, told The Advocate that DeAngelis’ role as contributor to Project 2025 is “further proof that he is willing to sell out student safety to anti-LGBTQ extremists.”
In the introduction, Project 2025 authors equate “transgender ideology” to “pornography” and call for it to be “outlawed.” The 900-page document boasts numerous policies to advance school privatization programs, while simultaneously urging to block public school officials from doing anything ― such as using a name or different pronoun ― to support trans and gender non-conforming students.
The idea that the existence of trans people is synonymous with pornography is now a well-worn trope dating back to the 1970s when anti-gay advocate Anita Bryant’s “Save the Children” campaign baselessly equated gays and lesbians with groomers and people who abuse children.
DeAngelis has echoed these claims as reasons that parents should pull their kids out of public schools and opt for taxpayer funded school privatization. In his book, “The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids From the Radicals Ruining Our Schools,” which Trump promoted on Truth Social, DeAngelis warns that many popular books in public schools are “pushing gender ideology” that veers into “pornographic territory.”
He has shared similar talking points on Fox News segments and criticized LGBTQ+ inclusive policies in schools, particularly those that allow trans girls to use girls’ locker rooms and play on girls’ sports teams.
Currently DeAngelis heads the nonprofit, Education Freedom Institute, that promotes “school choice,” a policy championed by some conservatives to use taxpayer money to subsidize private schools.
He has been a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, another conservative education nonprofit that was founded by Trump-appointed former Education Secretary Betsy Devos.
But since the videos surfaced two weeks ago, Rebekah Bydlak, a spokesperson for the American Federation for Children, told NBC News that DeAngelis was put on leave “as we look into this matter further.”
Bydlak did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Last year, DeAngelis supported school district policies in Chino, California, to “out” transgender students to their parents, and another in Temecula, California, to ban books that discuss LGBTQ+ people.
“I can’t believe we’re at a point in America where authoritarians in power are fighting this hard to keep sexual secrets about children from their own parents,” DeAngelis, who is on the board of the Liberty Justice Center, a conservative legal advocacy group, said after California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the Chino district for it’s parental notification policy.