For the past week, conservatives on social media have been attacking two male cheerleaders with the Minnesota Vikings, and a lot of liberals are having a hard time understanding what is pretty obviously just homophobia. Earlier this month, the Vikings announced that they would have two male cheerleaders for the first time, Blaize Shiek and Louie Conn, and released some videos and photos of them training. Related Its well-known that Lindsey Graham is gay, Trump ally testifies in deposition The right was outraged. Men? In cheerleading? But a few of the most-shared social media posts show that their issue isnt with the cheerleading, per se.This conservative influencer said that one of the cheerleaders was girating while sharing a video of Conn dancing with the women cheerleaders. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today Imagine you buy front row season football tickets and when you sit down there's some man girating right in front of you. pic.twitter.com/0zWpnY6hzW Owen Shroyer (@OwenShroyer1776) August 11, 2025Another viral X post showed Conn strutting in a stereotypically feminine way. The America First poster wrote, this isnt cool.I dont care how the NFL spins itthis isnt cool. pic.twitter.com/CAjVh8AnBf Desiree (@DesireeAmerica4) August 17, 2025 A trad wife influencer posted a picture of Shiek, who appears to be wearing make-up, and said shes so done with this state JFC.This is an official Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader this year. Im so done with this state JFC. pic.twitter.com/ubUqOsCgta Traditionally Sarah (@tradwifemom) August 9, 2025And MAGA actor Kevin Sorbo said he was abandoning his favorite NFL team and posted a video with the male cheerleaders. Ive been a Vikings fan all my life sigh. I need a new team now. pic.twitter.com/VYLdQxyix7 Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) August 12, 2025Liberals response to this has been to point out that there have been male cheerleaders for a long time, that Republicans like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were cheerleaders in college, and that theres no reason men shouldnt be allowed to cheer. Media Matters analyst Ari Drennens X post here reflects the response from liberals in general.George W Bush was head cheerleader at his high school https://t.co/QtHT0KedN5 Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) August 18, 2025 This response has gotten 144,000 likes so far. Here is Ronald Reagan when he was a cheerleader at Eureka Collegeso go fuck off. https://t.co/kZ2UgRotJE pic.twitter.com/CFaS6sPiTJ Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) August 10, 2025While its true that men have been a part of cheerleading since the beginning of the sport, that misses the point. The issue that the right has with Conn and Shiek isnt that theyre male cheerleaders but that theyre visibly gay. And, as usual, liberals and many LGBTQ+ people are uncomfortable acknowledging just how homophobic and transphobic people can be.One MAGA X poster tried to make their complaint about the cheerleaders clearer by approvingly posting a video of a male cheerleader who was wearing a different uniform than the female cheerleaders on his squad and helping one perform stunts, showing that he didnt want to be like the women cheerleaders and was not a threat to traditional gender roles.This is what a male cheerleader is supposed to look like, he wrote. This is what a male cheerleader is supposed to look like pic.twitter.com/QVi7yFiOf5 Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) August 18, 2025And still, some of the liberal responses getting lots of attention are missing the point, even though that conservative was pretty obvious about it.ok Im confused now are male cheerleaders ok or are they woke or what, one responded, getting nearly 50,000 likes. They just hate anyone who looks gay, someone replied in an attempt to get people to understand that homophobia and femme-phobia exist. They just hate anyone who looks gay Miss Mommy Molly Findom (@missmommymolly) August 19, 2025The situation is reminiscent of the rights attacks on the art of drag these past few years. Conservatives have been saying that drag performers are groomers or worse, that no one should be publicly seen in drag. Yet, conservatives keep wearing clothing associated with the opposite sex, often as a joke or as part of a show. The president famously promisedNO MORE DRAG SHOWS at the Kennedy Center when he took it over. Then, the center announced that its new season would feature several shows with men in womens clothes, including Mrs. Doubtfire and Spamalot.The issue, though, isnt drag itself. When straight men wear womens clothes, the right isnt bothered since their sexualities that is, their identities arent subversive. Theres no threat when its some frat bros wearing dresses as part of a prank or an actor wearing a dress in Mrs. Doubtfire, thats just people having fun. Nothing is threatening to their identities because theyre just temporarily wearing some clothes that everyone knows theyll take off later (before putting on more gender stereotypical clothing). Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who vocally hates drag performers, just laughed it off when a clip of her boyfriend, conservative pundit Brian Glenn, wearing womens clothes on TV was shared online in 2023.Im literally loling, she wrote in response to liberals sharing the video. The morons over at [the liberal watchdog X account] Patriot Takes think this is an attack. Brian loves the throwback and is reposting.The left is so stupid, Greene added. Perhaps shes right. There is something stupid about expecting conservatives to have a consistent idea of which actions are good to do and which are bad. Conservatives, in reality, understand the world through people: There are good people and bad people, and good people do good things and bad people do bad things, and whether something is good or bad depends on whos doing it.While Glenn put on a wig, a dress, and held a handbag in the video, its clear from his mannerisms that he wasnt taking it seriously. It was a joke, not a form of self-expression. So its not threatening. That is, Glenn did drag like a straight man, which means that its okay for people like Greene. Transgressing gender roles is fine as long as the right kind of person is doing it, the kind of person who everyone can confidently assume considers the transgressing of gender roles as shameful. And for the male cheerleaders, the conservative view is that its okay to participate in a sport that is, today, mostly made up of women, just as long as they do it in a masculine way, as long as they act like straight men when they do it and clearly show through different uniforms and different roles in the squad that they do not want to be anything like women cheerleaders.The issue is that homophobia and transphobia discourage people who are different from being visible and proud, and that male cheerleaders show that some people dont aspire to be like everyone else.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.