Long before he became a far-right crank perhaps most famous for calling for the eradication of “transgenderism,” Daily Wire host and demon expert Michael Knowles was that most beleaguered of all creatures: a wannabe actor. In the mid-2010s, he appeared in various web series and short films—including an uncredited role on the Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick.

Before that, however, he was a student at Yale, where he landed what may now go down in history as his most notable role starring in a student film called House of Shades. A clip from the 2012 short featuring Knowles’s queer character in bed with another man went semi-viral on Twitter this week, to the delight of LGBTQ+ users and allies who reveled in the hypocrisy of yet another virulently anti-LGBTQ+ figure with inconveniently queer skeletons lurking in his closet.

LGBTQ Nation, March 19, 2023 (PDF archive)