Anti-LGBTQ+ pundit accused of abusing wife & exposing genitals to coworkers

Anti-LGBTQ+ broadcaster Steven Crowder, host of the web show Louder with Crowder, has been accused of emotionally abusing his wife, undergoing “gender-affirming surgery,” and repeatedly exposing his genitals to his show’s staffers. Crowder repeatedly vilifies LGBTQ+ people as sexual predators and has spoken against gender-affirming care.

Last week, journalist Yashar Ali shared June 26, 2021 video footage taken from a Ring home security camera. In the video, Crowder berated his wife, Hillary Crowder, who was eight months pregnant with twins at the time. He refused to let her use the car to pick up groceries because it would impede his ability to go to the gym, visit his parents, and “call his friends.”

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He said that rape victims aren’t pretty enough to be believed.

As his wife appears to start crying, Steven Crowder tells her, “The only way out of this is discipline and respect.” When she tells him that they are at “an impasse” and “Your abuse is sick,” he lowers his voice and warns her, “Watch it…. F**king watch it.” He then commands her to “become worthy — wife worthy.”

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When she then says that she loves him, he responds, “I don’t love you, and that’s the problem. I’ve never received love from you.” He then says she’s not committed to him because she refuses to put on gloves to handle dog medication that she feared was toxic to pregnant women. Later, off-camera, Ali wrote that Crowder admitted to screaming “I will f**k you up!” to his wife as she fled their home.

Hilary Crowder filed for divorce in December 2021. In a recent installment of his show, Crowder mentioned his “horrendous” divorce and voiced displeasure with “no-fault divorce” laws that allowed his wife to file for a divorce without citing a cause like abuse or infidelity.

In a statement to Ali, his wife’s family wrote, “The truth is that Hilary spent years hiding Steven’s mentally and emotionally abusive behavior from her friends and family while she attempted to save their marriage.” Ali also wrote that Steven Crowder was not present for the twins’ birth.

Steven Crowder wasn’t present because he had an “elective gender-affirming surgery to puff out his chest,” trans activist Eli Erlick wrote in an April 29 tweet. Steven Crowder claimed that he had the surgery to correct a genetic “connective tissue disorder” that caused his chest to cave in on his heart and blocked his blood flow to nearly half that of a normal person’s.

Several trans advocates mocked Steven Crowder for having an elective surgery to transform his body despite regularly arguing against the right of trans youth to receive gender-affirming medical care. Although surgeries aren’t conducted on trans youth, Crowder has opposed young people receiving puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy even though these young people have safely received these medications for decades.

Vocal anti-trans pundit Steven Crowder had elective gender-affirming surgery to puff out his chest, which led to one of his lungs collapsing and him missing the birth of his twins… this is the same man that thinks trans people should be banned from public life. pic.twitter.com/E1uBj7BTAd

— Eli Erlick (@EliErlick) April 29, 2023

Commenting on the video of Steven Crowder berating his wife, one of Steven Crowder’s former employees told The New York Post, “I’m not shocked, but it was pathetic what he did to Hilary. That might not be the Steven you see on his show, but that was the real Steven.” Other former employees said they considered Crowder a “bully” who “created a cult-like atmosphere in the workplace and is intolerant of dissent.”

The Post spoke to 10 of Steven Crowder’s former employees. They said that he ran an “abusive” company, “often screamed at his employees… sent out directives to arbitrarily fire people, and made underlings wash his dirty laundry.” Six employees also said that he exposed his genitals and even placed them on other coworkers in plain sight of others.

One employee said that, in March 2018, Steven Crowder exposed his genitals and put them on the shoulder of Jared Monroe, a producer who was sleeping in a van, while others watched. Steven Crowder reportedly gave Monroe the nickname “Not Gay Jared” and exposed his genitals to Monroe in 2017 as well. When asked to comment on the allegations, Monroe told the Post, “No comment.”

A former employee said Steven Crowder placed his testicles on his assistant John Goodman during a 2018 flight with six co-workers present. Yet another former employee said Steven Crowder exposed his genitals to Landau, his former co-host, at a conference table with others present.

“It was childish,” one witness of the genital flashing told the Post. “But then I found out this was something he did. At first, I took it as him trying to be friendly or one of the guys. Now I see it was a power play.”

On top of all this, Steven Crowder reportedly had fallings outs with other anti-LGBTQ+ transphobic rightwing broadcasters including Candace Owen — who he claims is trying to “extort” him by threatening to release details of his divorce (a claim Owens calls “bulls**t”) — as well as Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the rightwing website The Daily Wire. Steven Crowder reportedly balked at a $50 million job offer from Shapiro’s company, souring his relationship with Shapiro and his influential site (where Owens also works).

Crowder’s two YouTube channels have over seven million subscribers. He also has millions of followers on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and makes millions each year from his broadcasts.

Following the November 19, 2022 Club Q shooting, Steven Crowder — whose show has been called “racist” by researchers who work on extremism — shared a post that called the club’s drag show “a grooming event” and commented that the answer to stopping child sex abuse by LGBTQ+ people was “Strong legislation to protect children and an armed populace to protect themselves/their kin.”