Online conservatives are upset that the fantasy action hero He-Man displays “he/him” pronouns in the recently released trailer for the upcoming film Masters of the Universe. Little do they know, some gay fans have long considered He-Man as one of the gayest series of all time.

Approximately 37 seconds into the trailer, it’s revealed that the royal hero from the planet Eternia now works a desk job on Earth, with a nameplate on his desk that reads, “Adam Glenn He/Him.” It’s obviously a joke, since He-Man literally has the pronoun “he” in his name, but conservative commenters on X have blamed the “woke mind virus” for causing the fantasy hero to “[promote] gender/trans ideology.”

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One X user, Bennett Production, wrote, “God dam woke mind virus is ruining everything….
You just f**ked up my childhood memory…. He-Man is not a he/him…..you dumb f**kers. He is a bad a** skeleton fighting son of a b**ch that knows he is a man.”

The user may be interested to know that English-speaking men (who know they are men) have been using “he” as a masculine pronoun for over 1,000 years.

God dam woke mind virus is ruining everything….
You just fucked up my childhood memory…. @He_Man_movie what the fuck?

He-Man is not a he/him…..you dumb fuckers. He is a bad ass skeleton fighting son of a bitch that knows he is a man.

Fuck….. Now I have to make a better… pic.twitter.com/LtfXuCG46I

— Bennett Production (@BennettProduct) January 22, 2026

Another X user, self-professed Christian @jondelarroz, wrote, “Now they’re making a Masters of the Universe and giving He-man pronouns. These people won’t stop until they ruin everything.” He didn’t explain how a one-second shot of male pronouns ruined an entire feature-length film about a scantily clad, musclebound prince waving a magic sword in a fantasy kingdom.

Now they're making a Masters of the Universe and giving He-man pronouns.

These people won't stop until they ruin everything. pic.twitter.com/cqAYIfRHmM

— Jon Del Arroz | Pop Culture & Gaming (@jondelarroz) January 22, 2026

Yet another X account, @GenderReceipts, accused the movie of “promoting gender/trans ideology.”

The new #MastersOfTheUniverse movie (which is based on iconic 80s cartoon He-Man) is promoting gender/trans ideology. pic.twitter.com/QL5flbflKe

— Gender Receipts (@GenderReceipts) January 22, 2026

In a 2018 podcast, David Chlopecki, founder of fetish wear company Slick It Up, called the ‘80s-era animated He-Man cartoon series “the gayest show that has ever been on TV.” He noted its premiere during the repressive Reagan-era, at a time when TV had no other recurring gay characters.

Chlopecki pointed out that in the cartoon, He-Man’s superpowers are described as “fabulous secret powers,” and noted that when He-Man pulls out his sword, he loses most of his clothes and wears a harness.

“The only time my clothes have been gone, and I’m wearing a harness, is when I’m having sex with men,” Chlopecki said.

He also argued that the show’s main villain, Skeletor — who made numerous wisecracks in a high-pitched voice, had painted claws, and a gang of social outsiders — physically resembled gay men diagnosed with HIV in the ‘80s who were given steroids as a treatment, leaving them with muscular bodies but skeletal faces.

In the 1987 He-Man live-action movie — created by gay director Gary Goddard — He-Man’s nemesis Skeletor seems titillated when his henchman whips He-Man.

The 2018 reboot of the He-Man spinoff cartoon, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, featured at least one non-binary villain, as well as two heroic same-sex couples who guided the show’s younger heroes. In 2022, the series’ creator came out as transgender.

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The Trump administration plans to extend current restrictions on foreign aid for abortion; efforts promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and so-called “gender ideology,” according to a senior official who shared the information ahead of the anti-abortion March for Life in Washington on Friday.

New rules will expand the “Mexico City Policy,” adopted by the U.S. in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan, to add “woke” ideologies — including DEI and support for transgender rights — to a list of international programs that the U.S. will no longer fund.

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“The State Department will release three final rules on Friday expanding the Mexico City Policy to protect foreign assistance from subsidizing not only abortion as a method of family planning, but also gender ideology (and) discriminatory equity ideology/DEI,” said the official, who confirmed the plans on condition of anonymity. Fox News first reported the policy change.

Under previous iterations of the Mexico City Policy — with a history of being reversed by Democratic administrations and revived under Republicans — U.S. funding was barred from supporting organizations that advocate for abortion rights. In Trump’s first term, the policy was expanded to cover roughly $8 billion in global health assistance. 

The new rules will go further, covering over $30 billion in non-military foreign assistance.

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Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other international organizations receiving U.S. assistance will have to certify that they don’t provide or promote abortion as “a method of family planning,” promote “gender ideology,” promote “discriminatory equity ideology,” or engage in “unlawful” diversity, equity and inclusion, according to the source, who spoke on the condition anonymity prior to an official announcement of the revised policy.   

The State Department in November announced plans to classify actions under pro-diversity policies and state subsidies for abortion as human rights abuses in its reports, Reuters reported.

The new rules are scheduled for release by the State Department on Friday, and coincide with completion of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

Taken together with the shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. withdrawal from dozens of global organizations, the new foreign aid policy represents a major setback in progress for LGBTQ+ rights, gender equity, and the worldwide fight against the HIV epidemic.

“This is so incredibly cruel,” Keifer Buckingham, managing director for LGBTQ+ rights group Council for Global Equality, said of the expanded Mexico City Policy. “It really is about forcing governments or NGOs or international organizations to sign on to an extreme ideological agenda, even denying that transgender or nonbinary people EXIST, just to get U.S. funds to provide what is often lifesaving services or programs,” he told The New York Times.

Soon after its implementation in 1984, opponents dubbed the Mexico City Policy the “global gag rule” for barring funding to organizations, even if they’re not using American tax dollars to engage in the proscribed activities.

That fact was lost on at least one supporter of Trump’s illiberal agenda.

“Far from being any kind of gag rule, you are free to talk however you wish if you’re paying for it, but you can’t ask us to pay for your speech,” said Kristi Hamrick, a spokeswoman for the group Students for Life of America, a participant in Friday’s March for Life. She added, “We don’t want to invest in abortion.”

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