Hunter Biden, son of former US president Joe Biden, said that he was ‘48.6 per cent gay’ during a podcast with progressive commentator Luke Beasley.
The gag came during an 80-minute interview published on 17 August, but it received wider media coverage after pro-LGBTQ outlets picked it up on 28 August. At the beginning of the podcast, Beasley, who is openly gay, asked Biden whether he was gay as well.
‘Only a little bit,’ Biden replied. Asked whether that meant more or less than 50 per cent, the former president’s son answered: ‘48.6.’ Asked whether Beasley would be his type if he were gay, Biden said he would prefer someone ‘a little bit more masculine’. He later announced that his ‘gaydom’ had fallen to 47 per cent, before telling Beasley at the end of the interview: ‘I just want to let you know that I am back up to 48.5 per cent gay.’
On 28 August, The Advocate reported that Biden had ‘come out as “48.5% gay”’. The same story appeared that day in other LGBTQ outlets, including Out and Them, while LGBTQ Nation ran its own report under the headline ‘Hunter Biden claims he’s “48.6% gay” in hilarious interview’.
The comments follow another discussion of homosexuality by Biden in July, when he claimed Washington contained a largely Republican ‘closeted gay mafia’ whose members channelled their personal conflicts into anti-LGBTQ politics. He mentioned Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and House Speaker Mike Johnson, while acknowledging that he did not know the claims to be true.
None of the Republicans mentioned reacted, however. Right-wing outlets rejected the allegations as unsubstantiated attacks, while LGBTQ Nation’s editor-in-chief separately criticized the use of gay stereotypes as ‘very homophobic and hard to watch’.
Hunter Biden appears to be enjoying renewed media attention after years of legal and political controversy. His foreign business activities in Ukraine and China were investigated for possible influence peddling, while he was convicted in 2024 on three felony gun charges stemming from a firearm purchase while addicted to crack cocaine and later pleaded guilty to nine federal tax offences involving at least $1.4 million in unpaid taxes. Joe Biden granted him a sweeping pardon in December 2024.
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