Christian TikToker Slammed Over Transphobic Video

Christian TikToker Ryan Foley has been slammed for comparing those who watch porn featuring transgender actors to serial killer Ted Bundy. 

Trigger Warning: This story discusses anti-LGBTQI comments, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.

Foley has been known to engage in various public stunts, including performing sermons in places like cafeterias, gyms, and shops. The TikToker, who has 189 000 followers, recently admitted to having watched transgender and gay porn in the past.

In the TikTok video, Foley described the pornography that he was watching over the years as “getting darker and darker” into “whack stuff that I thought I’d never be watching”. 

Holy War On Porn

Foley said he began watching porn when he was young and saw “transgenders having sex with chicks” which he declared was “opening” himself up to “spirits”.

According to The Daily Dot, the term “spirits” is often used by conservative Christians to condemn the use of pornography and the act of watching explicit sexual material. 

“Right-wing Christians often make this claim, although they might call them ‘demons’ or ‘devils’ instead, but the idea is that viewing something sexual opens a person up to bad entities that will make them do bad things,” the publication said. 

Foley claimed that people who watch porn between trans and cisgender people can risk becoming like Ted Bundy, the American serial killer who kidnapped, raped, and murdered several young women throughout the 1970s.

The TikToker said porn was “not gonna be enough” and compared it to Ted Bundy. “Eventually, the porn wasn’t enough for Ted Bundy, and he started actually doing the acts, and I started doing the acts,” Foley said. 

Foley declared that he has since rid himself of the “evil spirits” that came through watching pornography, with the help of God and finding salvation.

‘Religious Scapegoating’

In a TikTok posted in December last year, Foley stood preached the way of God to Subway patrons. He told customers that he had a message for them: “Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord before it’s too late,” he said. “Satan’s going to distract you with work, women, pornography, lust — he did to me. Don’t let him distract you. Repent.”

TikTok users flooded the comments of the video, criticising Foley’s remarks and his “religious scapegoating” used to vilify gay and trans people. 

One TikTok user compared Foley to Nate Jacobs, a character on Euphoria who has struggled with coming to terms with his sexuality and is seen repressing his sexuality in several instances throughout the show. 

Other users expressed their shock at the video, with one posting “I’m refusing to believe this is real”, and another writing “Is this a parody?” 

Another TikTok user criticised Foley’s comparison, writing “Damn, bud. The dark place you are getting dragged to is the place of shame & internalised homophobia. You aren’t killing porn, just hurting yourself.”