The Project 2025 co-creator appears to be referring to reports that he appeared in gay porn films 10 years ago

The prominent school privatization activist, praised by former President Donald Trump and instrumental in Project 2025, spoke out for the first time after videos were released earlier this month that appeared to show his involvement in gay pornographic films.

“As a parental rights and school choice activist, my passion is personal” – Corey DeAngelis wrote on Xformerly Twitter, Monday morning. “I was a victim of bad decisions and bad influences. I turned this experience into fuel that drives me to save young people from being put in the same situation I was put in and to help parents protect their children.”

Earlier this month, the Str8 Up Gay Porn blog, which posts gay porn reviews and articles about the adult entertainment industry, first reported that someone resembling DeAngelis had appeared in several gay adult films.

The performer, who goes by the name “Seth Rose,” appears in at least three gay-themed adult videos on the 2014 porn site GayHoopla. In the videos, “Rose” masturbates solo and with other men.

DeAngelis’ Monday post appears to confirm his appearance in the videos and that he was a “victim of bad decisions.” His post reached 163,000 followers on X and drew praise from conservative writers such as Ryszard HananiaAND Chris Rufowho is largely credited with fabricating the panic over critical race theory.

DeAngelis has been a fierce critic of what he considers “pornographic” content in school literature, often referring to any educational materials that include discussions about LGBTQ+ people and their experiences.

On the day that Str8 Up Gay Porn published its blog, DeAngelis shared a graphic on participation in girls’ sports.

DeAngelis did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment, although he sent a screenshot of this reporter’s inquiry to X and claimed that the article was “a targeted article against me because I don’t want porn in schools.”

The self-described “school choice evangelist” is also listed as a co-founder of Project 2025 on behalf of the American Federation for Children. Project 2025 is an action plan for Trump’s second presidency, authored by the Heritage Foundation and a network of conservative organizations.

Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBTQ+ group GLAAD, he told the Advocate that DeAngelis’ role as a Project 2025 collaborator is “further evidence that he is willing to sell out student safety to anti-LGBTQ extremists.”

In the introduction, the authors of Project 2025 equate “transgender ideology” with “pornography” and call for its “outlawing.” The 900-page document lays out numerous policies aimed at accelerating school privatization programs while also calling for blocking public school officials from doing anything — such as using a name or a different pronoun — to support transgender and gender nonconforming students.

The idea that the existence of transgender people is tantamount to pornography is now a tired trope, dating back to the 1970s with Anita Bryant’s anti-gay Save the Children campaign. unjustly equated gays and lesbians with hairdressers and people who abuse children.

DeAngelis echoed these claims, outlining reasons why parents should pull their children out of public schools and advocate for taxpayer-funded school privatization. In his book, “The Parent Revolution: Saving Children from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools,” which Trump’s rise in “Truth Social,” DeAngelis warns that many popular books in public schools “push gender ideology” that veers into “pornographic territory.”

He has shared similar views on Fox News segments and criticized LGBTQ+ inclusive policies in schools, especially those that allow transgender girls to use girls’ locker rooms and play on girls’ sports teams.

DeAngelis currently heads the nonprofit Education Freedom Institute, which promotes “school choice,” a policy supported by some conservatives that aims to use taxpayer money to subsidize private schools.

He was a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, another conservative education nonprofit founded by Trump’s appointee, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

But since the videos came to light two weeks ago, Rebekah Bydlak, a spokeswoman for the American Federation for Children, told NBC News that DeAngelis had been fired “as this matter continues to be reviewed.”

Bydlak did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

Last year, DeAngelis supported a school district policy in Chino, California “out” of transgender students to parentsand 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 so hard to keep sexual secrets about children from their own parents,” DeAngelis, who serves on the board of the Liberty Justice Center, a conservative legal organization, said after after California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Chino County over its parental notification policy.