A school-privatization activist and frequent Fox News guest whose work has been praised by former President Donald Trump was placed on leave by his conservative nonprofit employer after reports surfaced that he had appeared in gay pornography videos.
Corey DeAngelis has been a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, a conservative education nonprofit founded by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, since 2021 (DeVos’ website says she’s the former chair of the organization, and the organization’s site does not mention DeVos as being currently involved). When asked about DeAngelis and the adult film reports, Rebekah Bydlak, a spokesperson for the organization, said, “We have placed the employee on leave as we look into this matter further.” Bydlak declined to comment further.
A person who resembles DeAngelis and performs under the name “Seth Rose” appears in at least three gay adult films on the pornography site GayHoopla, dating back to 2014. In the videos, “Seth Rose” does not have sexual contact with other performers, rather he appears in scenes masturbating solo or alongside other men. The existence of the videos was first reported last week by the blog Str8 Up Gay Porn, which shares gay porn and articles about sex.
DeAngelis did not immediately return a request for comment.
DeAngelis, who has more than 160,000 followers on X, received his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas in 2018 and has since worked for several conservative nonprofits. In more recent years, he’s become a fierce advocate of “school choice,” which subsidizes private schools with public dollars. He’s also been a critic of LGBTQ topics being discussed in schools. In 2021, Forbes named DeAngelis as one of its education category’s 30 under 30 winners.
DeAngelis has also regularly appeared as a guest on Fox News in recent years, with some of his appearances criticizing policies that are supportive of LGBTQ students.
In a Fox News segment last year, DeAngelis spoke out against the Los Angeles Unified School District after it held a “Week of Action” to honor famous LGBTQ people, including former NFL player Carl Nassib.
“It’s just so strange how the far left is so obsessed with inserting sexual topics into elementary schools,” DeAngelis said in the segment. “Why not just focus on the basics, get the math, reading and arithmetic, correct?”
In an appearance on Fox News in May, DeAngelis criticized and linked the student-led protests against the Israel-Hamas war to how LGBTQ issues are talked about in public schools.
“They’re not focusing on the basics — math, reading and writing,” DeAngelis said. “They’re focusing more on the ‘LGBTs’ than the ‘ABCs.’”
A representative for Fox News did not immediately return a request for comment.
This year, DeAngelis released a book titled “The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids From the Radicals Ruining Our Schools.” A description of the book states that it “exposes the hypocritical elites who are content to hold other people’s children captive to poorly run government schools.” Former President Donald Trump praised the book on his social media site, Truth Social, in May.
“Corey DeAngelis is a FIGHTER for Parental Rights,” Trump wrote. “His new book, The Parent Revolution, is a great guide to help Moms and Dads take back control of their children’s education from the RADICAL MARXISTS ruining our schools.”
Trump’s endorsement of the book is pinned to the top of DeAngelis’ Instagram account and quoted at the top of DeAngelis’ X account.
In July, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance shared one of DeAngelis’ X posts that included a video of Vance vowing to fight for school children to “get a good education and not an indoctrination.”
A spokesperson for the Trump-Vance campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Last week, DeAngelis shared an X post from House Speaker Mike Johnson that mocked support for trans girls playing on school sports teams that correspond with their gender identities and the Drag Story Hour children’s reading program.
“Schools should be places for education — not indoctrination,” Johnson’s post said.
DeAngelis has not posted on his social media accounts since Sept. 19. His landing page at the American Federation for Children appears to have been taken down.
For more from NBC Out, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
