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Nick Offerman arrives for HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ premiere, January 9, 2023, in Los Angeles
Flynn Jr., son of the former national security adviser, posted a doctored Parks and Recreation clip on X making Swanson appear anti-LGBTQ+.
Don’t ever assume that Nick Offerman is a homophobe — or that Ron Swanson, his character on Parks and Recreation, was.
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Offerman expressed outrage after Michael Flynn Jr., the far-right son of the equally far-right former national security adviser, used a clip of Offerman in character as Swanson in an anti-LGBTQ+ Pride Month post on X.
The clip shows Swanson tossing a computer into a trash bin — and in Flynn’s doctored version, the computer is covered in a Pride flag.
“Good morning and Happy Sunday!” Flynn wrote. “No quotes today. Just wanted to post how I feel about ‘pride’ month.”
Offerman shared Flynn’s post Monday with the comment “Ron was best man at a gay wedding you dumb f---. #HappyPride.”
The Swanson character on Parks and Recreation, which ran on NBC from 2009 to 2015, was the head of the parks department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, and the boss of protagonist Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler. Swanson was an economic conservative and pretty much a macho guy, but he was an ally to the LGBTQ+ community, as Offerman has been in real life. In the series finale, Swanson was best man to his hairstylist, Typhoon (Rodney To), as Typhoon married Craig (Billy Eichner), an employee at the parks department.
Offerman played a gay man in a 2023 stand-alone episode of HBO’s dystopian drama The Last of Us. His survivalist character, Bill, opens his home to a wanderer named Frank (Murray Bartlett), and they fall in love. The role brought Offerman an Emmy Award as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series as well as an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series.
In accepting the latter, he thanked HBO for “having the guts to participate in this storytelling tradition that is truly independent.” He added, “Stories that when homophobic hate comes my way and says, ‘Why did you have to make it a gay story,’ we say, ‘Because you ask questions like that.’ It’s not a gay story, it’s a love story, you a–hole.” Offerman is married to another LGBTQ+ ally, Megan Mullally of Will & Grace fame.
In addition to his acting career, Offerman operates a woodworking shop in Los Angeles. “People who come to my shop are straight, gay, trans, non-gender-conforming … it doesn’t matter if you want to make a table, and why should it?” he told iNewsin 2023. He said homophobia amounts to "basically punishing people for loving wrong" and expressed amazement that many people still feel comfortable making anti-LGBTQ+ statements.
Just this week he talked about his grief over the death of gay actor Jonathan Joss, who had a recurring role on Parks and Recreation. Joss was fatally shot in San Antonio over the weekend, and a neighbor of his has been charged with murder. “The cast has been texting together about it all day and we’re just heartbroken,” he said in a statement to People. “Jonathan was such a sweet guy and we loved having him as our Chief Ken Hotate. A terrible tragedy.”
Flynn Jr. is known for outrageous social media posts. He has called Presidents Biden and Obama “traitors,” a label he also applied to former FBI Director James Comey, and said they tried to destroy his family. His father, Flynn Sr., was national security adviser for 22 days during Donald Trump’s first term but resigned after it was revealed he’d misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about his conversations with Russian officials. Flynn Jr. has also used his X feed to call Pence and his wife, Karen, “trash,” to spread conspiracy theories, and to term political opponents communists.
