The “No Kings” protests swept the United States and parts of Western Europe on March 29, 2026, attracting thousands of opponents of President Trump’s foreign policy, particularly rising tensions with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.
Organizers framed it as a movement for democracy, peace and civil rights. All of these things were, most likely, for someone. For street interviewer Lionel, known online as No Cap On God (@Nocapongod_), it was also an opportunity to ask some very simple questions. The answers that followed have since been shared by everyone from regular Twitter users to Ted Cruz.
from ‘Hormuz gays To “Iran supports LGBT” claims: Wild comments go viral
Lionel’s opening gambit was apparently ridiculous. When he approached one protester, he asked if it was “a bit homophobic” for global attention to focus on the Strait of Hormuz rather than gay people in Hormuz.The protester immediately agreed. Completely. Without hesitation.“Yes, I agree with that. Yes, absolutely,” she said, before launching into a thoughtful explanation of how “historically, homosexuals have always been severely discriminated against, which is wrong on many levels. Even in war.”Let’s be clear: Hormuz gays don’t exist. The Strait of Hormuz is a real and extremely important waterway, through which approximately 20% of the world’s oil supplies pass.
It has been at the center of tensions between the United States and Iran for months. There are no gays in Hormuz. There is no injustice against them. They are a pun.It appears that the protester did not think about this possibility. Instead, she called for government reform and public education to address the crisis, the imaginary crisis, with the same conviction one might bring to an actual geopolitical issue.Impressively, Lionel kept a straight face throughout the match. It is uncertain whether the same can be said about the Strait of Hormuz.If the first protester sets the tone, a self-described heterosexual male ally raises the stakes considerably.When he learned of the plight of gays in Hormuz, again, which was not true, he declared that he was constitutionally and morally obligated to act.“I’m a straight man. I’m an ally, man,” he said, taking the risk of someone declaring their intention to run for office. “They are heading towards the Strait of Hormuz but are not prepared to protect gay people in Hormuz.
This is not cool.”At some point during the interview, a small group began chanting: “Release the gays in Hormuz! The gays will refuse to leave themselves behind!”This chant seems to have been spontaneous. He was apparently sincere. It seems that no one concerned thought to ask where exactly the Hormuz gays were, what they needed to be freed from, or whether they had been consulted on the matter.The ally also offered, without warning, that the region could “certainly become Fire Island,” a suggestion that implied a level of optimism about urban planning rarely seen in foreign policy discussions in the Middle East.
He watches
NoKings: Free the gays in Hormuz
Iran: a feminist paradise, according to participants in an anti-war demonstration
Lionel then turned his attention to a man waving an Iranian flag and asked him what he thought of America’s complicated relationship with Tehran.The man explained: “I think America hates them because Iran is a feminist.”One companion enthusiastically agreed, adding that “there is no better place to be a woman than in Iran than here,” here the United States, a country where women can drive, vote, appear in public without a mandatory dress code, and seek recourse to the law without needing the permission of a male guardian.In contrast, Iran currently ranks among the most restrictive countries on Earth when it comes to women’s rights. The country has witnessed years of protests, often brutally suppressed, by Iranian women demanding basic freedoms. The “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, which emerged after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, remains one of the most important feminist uprisings of the modern era. None of this information appears to have been encountered by the protesters.The conversation didn’t stop there.When Lionel asked about gay rights in Iran, a nearby protester reported that Ayatollah Khamenei was “very pro-gay” and that there were internal discussions about the next supreme leader being a “gay man.”For context: Homosexuality is illegal in Iran and punishable by death. The Islamic Republic has executed individuals for homosexual relations. The Ayatollah has not, to anyone’s knowledge, expressed pro-LGBT sentiments. No one pushed back. No one has been verified. Lionel simply moved on to the next question.
Guillotine slide (nonviolent)
Perhaps the most structurally interesting part of the interview came when Lionel asked one particularly active protester what he felt should happen to political opponents.The protester had ideas.He said Donald Trump would be the first. Stephen Miller II. However, the guillotine had to be intentionally dulled before use, specifically so that the miller could “warm it up.”
Ivanka Trump was mentioned. Eric Trump was mentioned. Melania Trump received a partial reprieve with unclear terms. The discussion about who would go, in what order, and with what blade specifications went on for a surprisingly long time, with a conversation ending with the protester asserting, without irony, that he believed in nonviolence.“Yes,” he said when asked directly.It is worth noting that, in most philosophical traditions, the call to execute someone by guillotine and belief in nonviolence are considered mutually exclusive positions.
This demonstrator seems to have found a way to capture both at once, which is either a remarkable feat of cognitive flexibility or a sign that the question has not been fully addressed.Lionel made no mention of this. He thanked the man and left.
Venezuela, Cuba and China fan club
Elsewhere at the protest, a separate set of conversations was unfolding about preferred governance systems, all, notably, at an event being held in a country that allows such conversations to take place freely in public.One protester said she admires China’s political system because its citizens receive health care, housing and education. When Lionel asked her if she would be willing to sacrifice some democracy for these benefits, she replied that America was not really a democracy, pointing to the arrests of activists as evidence.Then she simultaneously stated that she was gay and would never date a capitalist.
These two facts were connected only by proximity, but together they painted a picture of a person with very clearly defined values and a dating pool that seemed comfortable narrowing dramatically.Another protester made the case for Cuba and Venezuela, claiming that if socialism is destined to fail, America should simply leave those countries alone to fail naturally. He noted, without apparent self-awareness, that he had a corporate job and that he had recently paid sixteen dollars for a salad at Sweetgreen’s.
The solution he proposes is for the government to simply provide power.This is, depending on your economic policies, either a radical reimagining of the welfare state or a very expensive way to think about lunch.
Venezuelan complexity
In a development that Leonel seemed to navigate with the ease of a man who is no longer surprised by anything, the protest also included a group of Venezuelan demonstrators who were there to protest the Maduro regime, a situation that put them directly at odds with the nearby communist contingent.“These Venezuelans are traitors,” one protester declared, while yards away, actual Venezuelans demonstrated to free their country from a government that this protester seemed to admire.The irony of people being called traitors for opposing a tyrannical government that oppresses them, while attending a protest about opposing tyranny, was not commented on by anyone in attendance.Lionel moved.
What does this actually tell us?
It will be from It is frankly easy and tempting to treat this video as purely comedic. Which is objectively very funny. The Hormuz Gay Hymn alone is a piece of episodic performance art that no satirist could have written.But there is something really worth studying underneath.These were not marginal figures. They were ordinary people who came, likely with good intentions, to protest something they felt strongly about.
The problem is that “feeling strongly” and “knowing what you’re talking about” turn out to be two completely different things. The protesters, unable to locate the Strait of Hormuz on a map, were passionate about foreign policy. The protesters, who believed Iran was a feminist utopia, were marching for women’s rights.
The demonstrators who demanded the guillotine affirmed their belief in nonviolence.Secession is not limited to one side of the political aisle.
Interviews with people on the street at any major protest, of any ideological stripe, tend to produce a certain percentage of people who are more committed to the strength of the movement than to its details. What made Lionel’s footage so shareable was the special flavor of confident error on display, the complete absence of doubt, even when agreeing that the imaginary waterway was wronged.The clip was shared by Ted Cruz. Brit Hume described similar footage as “priceless.”
The right had a field day.
Lionel and the art of saying nothing
What makes No Cap On God’s interview style particularly effective, and particularly devastating, is what it doesn’t do.Don’t argue. It does not correct. He does not smile visibly or openly. He simply poses the next question with the same serious, earnest delivery, creating a space in which people confidently fill the silence with whatever they believe to be true. It is, in its own way, a masterclass in allowing the subject to fully reveal itself on its own terms.“Gays in Hormuz” works not because Lionel set a trap, but because there was no need for a trap. He presented an absurdity, and those he interviewed responded honestly to it, elaborated on it, cheered it on, and pledged their loyalty to it.Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz remains a real geopolitical flashpoint with real consequences for global oil supplies, regional stability, and the lives of actual people, including LGBT individuals living under an Iranian government that many of these protesters have just described as progressive.The homosexuals in Hormuz could not be reached for comment.They don’t exist.
