- Amil Odom is a black LGBTQ influence on YouTube and Instagram
- “I thought I had to fit into this ideological box,” Odom said in an interview.
- READ MORE: Trump boosts black voters with visit to Detroit church
Just because you’re gay or black doesn’t mean you can’t be a Republican, according to one influencer who spoke about the backlash he faced when going from liberal to conservative.
“I was very much following the script of thinking that all Republicans were racist and homophobic, thinking that because I was black, I had to believe it and support Black Lives Matter…” said Amil Odom in an interview with Fox News Digital.
‘That, since I’m gay, I have to be a Democrat, I have to support all LGBTQ causes because that’s the one that was there for me. Until I realized that wasn’t the truth.
It took a date with a white man to start questioning his own beliefs, when he was asked why he hated the police and sided with Black Lives Matter, Odom explained.
‘I thought I had to fit into this ideological box. And then it wasn’t until my own views were challenged,” Odom said.
Amil Odom is a black LGBTQ influence on YouTube and Instagram
“I didn’t really know where I was because I was just regurgitating headlines regurgitating what someone else said, what another influencer said and when I started doing the research on my own, that’s when things really exploded.”
“And in one year, I went from marching in the streets with BLM to shaking hands with Donald Trump at the White House.”
The former president recently launched a group targeting Black voters as he looks to continue making progress with a group that was instrumental to President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
A New York Times/Siena College battleground poll recently found that Trump was winning more than 20 percent of African-American voters, which would be a record if carried over to the November election result.
At the same time, Odom, who has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram and more than 240,000 on YouTube, said he realized there was no need to pick a side and stick with it.
“It’s okay to disagree with everything a Republican says and does, same thing, it’s okay to disagree with everything a Democrat says and does,” he said.
‘It just so happens that the way our political landscape is right now, I agree more with a lot of things that Republicans and conservatives are doing.
Odom described how he went from being a Black Lives Matter supporter to being a Trump fan
“Almost the entire left says yes, a child should be allowed to transition. I’m sorry… I’m not going to accept that.’
But Odom said that was an example of an issue that demanded a form of ideological purity on the left.
“This trans issue… has lit a fire among a lot of people on the left, because the moment someone on the left, all they have to say is, ‘I don’t agree with[the issue of]children.’ trans’. Boom. (They) think you are transphobic and homophobic people,’ he said.
“Almost the entire left says yes, you have to let a child make the transition. I am so sorry. I’m not going for that. I’m just not. I can’t defend that.’