Activist and actor Yuval David is a self-described gay, progressive American Israeli, so his decision to pull Donald Trump's lever was not something he underestimated.
“No one was forced to make me politically homeless,” he told Fox News Digital. “It was where I found myself because I wasn't included. I didn't feel represented by the community I thought I was supposed to represent. So when I made the decision to not be a Democrat anymore, and when I made the decision to vote for Donald Trump, it was based on my values and on my own safety.”
The Emmy Award-winning actor, filmmaker, activist and lifelong Democrat played roles in television shows such as “Madame Secretary.” He said on October 7th that he felt like a Democrat outcast after the 2024 presidential election and felt safer within the Republican Party.
“The world after October 7th seems to have amplified everything. It feels like I'm focusing on what's happening in our society over the years,” he said. “I often say that anti-Semitism is not rising, it's already rising. I'm waving a red flag within my community about anti-Semitic racism I've seen within LGBT people. [community]progressive liberals, and even within democratic spaces. ”
Americans censored by the UN Human Rights Council have been accused of using “disrespectful language.”
“Since October 7, there have been hateful prejudices that hate justified Jews, and have used Hamas, Palestinian Islamic jihad and terrorist support as justification for Jewish hatred,” he added. He is a prejudicator and wants to stand up to Jews for some reason. ”
David has long said that his liberal and progressive views are part of his identity, both American and Israeli.
“I was always proud of the fact that democratic values are Jewish values and that liberalism is ingrained in Zionism. I was watching my movement that moved the goalpost in the US and globally. My values remained unchanged.”
David said a big turning point for him was when he marched in Washington, when he marched in June 2024 with the Washington DC Pride March, as well as other Jews and Jewish allies. Subject to physical and verbal abuse.
“Pride is always an event that involves so many joys and celebrations where people understand the concepts of intersectivity and intersecting identity, and we represent so many different communities and we can bring it all into this proud space,” he said. “What I witnessed in this LGBTQ pride in Washington, DC was actually nothing but physically and emotionally embarrassing, disrupted and truly hurting.”
David said his Jewish group was physically assaulted in the middle of a Pride march, including those jumping over barriers, breaking the flag of Israeli pride, knocking people, pulling backpacks and punching camera warmans. He described it as an upsetting culmination of what he saw over the years reveal within several different factions of the LGBTQ community.
“As Zionists, I say Zionism is a movement of self-realization for Jews who have connections to our hometown, they say that there cannot be Zionists in Israel, we cannot exist in the Middle East [and] We cannot exist anywhere else. Apparently we could not exist in this pride march. “So what does that mean for Zionists to go home?” he asked.
“It is an antithesis to the value of the LGBTQ movement, the value of inclusion, the value of diversity, the value of unconformity, the value of unification,” he added. “But now, these progressive movements, including the LGBTQ movement, enforce uniformity and compatibility, which doesn't seem to be diverse.”
David felt he was in danger as an American gay, but he felt he was in danger as a Jew.
“The amount of death threat I received on social media and on real life is scary, unacceptable, anti-democratic and anti-American,” he said.
“I was physically assaulted as a Jew,” he added. “We've seen what's going on campus at university. People feel that it's completely justified to suspend Jewish professors teaching classes, or to suspend Jewish students or block Jews and Zionists from crossings because Jewish students are part of the Jewish affinity space.”
Anti-Israel protesters at Bernard University arrested after mob became violent
Yuval David in the Pride March. (Ohad kab)
David said he is wary of the university's campus, which is overrunning students who openly support Hamas, the terrorist group that slaughtered Israeli Jews and foreigners on October 7th.
“It seems that Democrat leaders are even hesitant to acknowledge the issue,” he said. “Under the Trump administration, the Department of Education has made it clear that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act also protects Jewish students from discrimination. That is something that the previous administration could not fully enforce. So once again, I felt expressed and protected by this administration.”
“If the same thing happened against black people, LGBT people, women, Muslims and Native Americans, it would be quickly condemned,” he said. “So I realized that all this anti-Semitic racism is allowed, and what do you know?
Yuval described the LGBTQIA+ movement as one of the most successful social and political movements America has seen in modern history, but now he says the movement has gone too far.
Instead of a movement that unites and celebrates tolerance, acceptance, diversity, people seem to have forced them to be part of a particular political party. Essentially, David said he noticed “quiet censorship” and “closets” of conservative LGBTQ members.
“I always said it wasn't acceptable,” he said. “We should be diverse… Because the LGBTQ community is the most diverse community in the world, so we are part of all other communities.”
David also challenges the claim that Trump is an anti-LGBTQ+ president.
“Under his administration, Trump called for a global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality in a country where being gay is still punished by death,” he said. That's not what anti-LGBTQ+ leaders do. ”
“If anything, Trump is more consistent about LGBTQ rights than any other Democrat,” he added. “He also appointed Richard Grenell, the first openly gay person to hold a cabinet-level position. It's not a token employment, but he hired someone who was leading important foreign policy initiatives.”
He also said Trump's policies on transgender issues, including banning biological men from competing with women's sports and limiting the medical transition for minors, are to understand fairness, protecting children, understanding science, and understanding the psychological and therapeutic needs of those who choose to transition rather than attacking the LGBTQ+ community.
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“We're actually discovering that there are lesbians, gays, bis, and even trans people who agree with these stances,” he said. “But the progressives on the far left tried to silence us. That was another reason why I began to feel safe in my movements. I'm not seeing the facts about what the administration is doing, I'm feeling too much of a terror.”
But David believes Democrats can and must fix themselves.
“I think Democrats need to take that as a lesson, seeing how the outcome of this past election has happened and that we are in office,” he said. “How can they straighten the course? How can they represent all Americans? And how can they lean towards the value they claim to represent?”
David said he still considers himself a liberal, but he now makes it clear that he is a “old-fashioned liberal.”
“My values haven't changed, but I now call them progressives… they're fake or regressing because they went against the values I thought were part of the progressive movement,” he said.
“Everyone should sit at the table,” he said. “Unless you're trying to kill someone at the table, we need to have those conversations unless you're trying to erase someone else at that table.”
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The LGBTQ movement must be about inclusion and diversity, Yuval said, but unfortunately he hasn't seen it in the space on the left these days.
“Ironically, we found that conservatives are people who allow LGBTQ+ people to speak freely,” he added. “I've had real conversations with moderates and right-leaning individuals, while progressives try to shut me down at moments that don't match all of their talk points.”
