Democratic congresswoman calls out Pete Hegseth’s ‘intense, homoerotic feelings towards men’

U.S. Rep. Becca Balint offered a pointed queer critique of President Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new testosterone initiative Thursday, comparing the Pentagon chief’s cultivated “rugged macho man” image to the hypermasculine figures drawn by the gay erotic artist Tom of Finland.Balint, a Vermont Democrat and a lesbian, was speaking with MeidasTouch chief Washington correspondent Scott MacFarlane at the U.S. Capitol one day after Hegseth announced mandatory annual testosterone deficiency screening for service members age 30 and older. MacFarlane posted video of the exchange to social media.“I think [this] is indicative of the fact that there are so many people in this administration that have some weird, intense, homoerotic feelings towards men while also being incredibly homophobic,” Balint said, adding that administration officials engage in “hate mongering” and “fear mongering” about LGBTQ+ people.Related: The Pentagon said transgender hormone care costs too much. Now Pete Hegseth wants testosterone boosts She stressed that homoeroticism itself was not the target of her criticism. “I don’t think the homoeroticism is the weird part,” she said. “The weird part is that they pretend that that’s not what it’s about.”Balint then reached for a reference from queer art history. “Pete Hegseth is the example of this, the manly, manly, rugged macho man,” she said. “I don’t know if you know who Tom of Finland is.”Balint described Tom of Finland’s work as gay male pornography before declaring, “Pete Hegseth is the embodiment of that.”Tom of Finland was the pseudonym of Touko Laaksonen, a Finnish artist whose erotic drawings of muscular, exaggeratedly masculine men in uniforms, leather and work clothes became influential in gay culture beginning in the 1950s. His work helped challenge stereotypes that portrayed gay men exclusively as weak or effeminate.Balint’s comparison followed Hegseth’s announcement