Obama: Men Need Gay Friends and Role Models

Former President Barack Obama said this week that males need to have gay friends to call them out over “ignorant” remarks and to prepare them in case they have a gay or “non-binary” son.

Obama made the comments on his wife Michelle’s “IMO” podcast, which she co-hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson.

When the discussion turned to raising young men, Obama said boys need “exposure” to all sorts of male role models, who can sometimes shed “perspective” on their own dad.

“And that’s one of the things that I think a lot of times boys need, is, not just exposure to one guy — one dad,” the former president said. “No matter how good the dad is, he can’t be everything. And that boy may need somebody to give the boy some perspective on the dad, right?”

Continuing, Obama recalled having a gay professor he was close with, who he said called him out on his “ignorant” remarks.

“One of the most valuable things I learned, as a guy, was I had a gay professor in college, at a time when openly gay folks still weren’t out a lot, who became one of my favorite professors, and was a great guy, and who would call me out when I started saying stuff that was ignorant,” he said.

Gay friends, Obama continued, can prepare a male for a future gay or “non-binary” son.

“You need that, to show empathy and kindness,” he said. “And by the way, you need that person in your friend group, so that if you then have a boy who is gay or non-binary or what have you, they have somebody that they can go, ‘Okay, I’m not alone in this.'”

Obama famously pushed transgender culture into the mainstream in May 2016, when his administration issued a directive to effectively force schools to allow males who identify as trans into female spaces.

The letter, from the Obama Justice and Education Departments, claimed for the first time that Title IX protects against discrimination based on so-called gender identity, not biological sex.

“This guidance further clarifies what we’ve said repeatedly — that gender identity is protected under Title IX,” then-Education Secretary John B. King Jr. said at the time. “We must ensure that our young people know that whoever they are or wherever they come from, they have the opportunity to get a great education in an environment free from discrimination, harassment and violence.”

Under President Donald Trump, Title IX is again being interpreted how it’s always been pre-Obama, based on sex. The Trump Justice Department is also targeting liberal states for violating Title IX protections.

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Barack Obama says gay professor shaped him as a young man. pic.twitter.com/9mTTydwtBH

— Martin Walsh (@martinwalsh__) July 17, 2025