Anti-LGBTQ+ Republican Madison Cawthorn blasts ‘soft metrosexuals’ in final, toxic address
While he was in Congress Madison Cawthorn became known for his anti-LGBTQ+ views. (Twitter/The Recount)
Republican representative Madison Cawthorn has used his final address to attack young men as “soft metrosexuals” who need to “reclaim your masculinity”.
The anti-LGBTQ+ North Carolina congressman lost his re-election bid in May, after a video surfaced of him naked with another man, which he claimed was simply him “trying to be funny” with a friend.
Cawthorn, once the youngest freshman in Congress, gave his final address on Wednesday (30 November), in which he urged Americans to become “manlier”.
“Our young men are taught that weakness is strength, that delicacy is desirable, and that being a soft metrosexual is more valuable than training the mind, body, and soul,” he said at the House of Representatives.
“Social media has weakened us, siphoning our men of their will to fight.”
Cawthorn, 27, added that the US was “on this precipice of disaster”, and he wanted to “ask the young men of this nation a question. Will you sit behind a screen while the storied tales of your forefathers become a myth? Or will you stand resolute against the dying light of America’s golden age?”
“Will you reclaim your masculinity? Will you become a man to be feared, to be respected, to be looked up to, or will you let this nation’s next generation be its final generation?” He added.
During his time in Congress, pro-Trump Cawthorn became known for his anti-LGBTQ+ views, stating that he has “traditional views”, and that the LGBTQ+ rights movement should have stopped after equal marriage was won in America.
“But now it’s saying that we need to be able to have gender reassignment surgery for 12-year-olds. They never stopped at a line. They always go further,” Cawthorn said on the Charlie Kirk Show in 2020.
Cawthorn has twice been accused of sexual misconduct and harassment. In 2020, some of his former college classmates at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, told Buzzfeed News that he had used his vehicle to “entrap and harass” women.
A former classmate told Buzzfeed News: “I think that it is important that the people in power have integrity… or have the qualifications necessary… My experiences with Madison Cawthorn have demonstrated that he doesn’t have those.”
Cawthorn’s election bid was rocked the most, however, when a leaked video showed the congressman wearing women’s lingerie, naked and humping a friend’s face, and having a staffer – who he said was his cousin – grab his genitalia in a car.
Writing on Twitter shortly after the video leaked, Cawthorn said: “A new hit against me just dropped.”
He continued: “Years ago, in this video, I was being crass with a friend, trying to be funny. We were acting foolish, and joking. That’s it. I’m NOT backing down.
“I told you there would be a drip drip campaign. Blackmail won’t win. We will.”
Further addressing the video, he described it as “just stupid locker room talk between two cousins that grew up like brothers” and said it was “taken long before I served in Congress”.
Cawthorn lost his primary election in May to Chuck Edwards, a fellow Republican.
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