Steven Hotze

Steven Forrest Hotze (born 1950) is an American conservative talk radio host, conspiracy theorist, physician, Republican activist and megadonor in Texas.

In 1976, Hotze graduated from the University of Texas Medical Branch with his Doctor of Medicine.

He promoted a series of claims with no basis in science, including that taking birth control pills made women "less attractive to men" and that "when men lose their testicles to disease or injury, they have difficulty reading a map, performing math problems and making decisions."

Hotze has been involved in right-wing activism since at least 1982.

His far-right views have sometimes caused friction with fellow Republicans.

He has claimed that malpractice lawsuits are "un-Biblical"; supported Houston mayoral candidate Louie Welch who promoted fighting HIV/AIDS by "shoot[ing] the queers"; and advocated for greater influence of Christianity upon government.

Hotze has opposed homosexuality since at least 1986, once comparing "LGBT people to Nazis and pledg[ing] to drive 'homofascists' from Houston to San Francisco."

Hotze has been a practicing physician since at least 2000, and is based in Katy, Texas.

Hotze hosted a conservative talk radio show on the radio station KSEV beginning in the early 2000s, when the station was co-managed by Patrick; Hotze remained on the air until 2011.

Hotze's influence within Republican state and local politics in Texas, wielded in the form of endorsements, fundraising, and donations, may have peaked in the 2002–2013 period, when his ally Jared Woodfill was chairman of the Harris County Republican Party at a time when Republicans dominated the county.

In a 2005 appearance on the CBS Early Show, Hotze advanced his views about thyroid disorders; in a letter to CBS, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists criticized Hotze's statements as "completely erroneous and unsubstantiated, and ... readily refuted by a large body of solid scientific evidence."

In 2013, Hotze brought lawsuits against the Affordable Care Act, asserting that the health-care reform law was unconstitutional; he released two anti-ACA pop-techno music tracks entitled "God Fearing Texans Stop Obamacare" and "Texans Stand Against Obamacare" containing lyrics such as "We will defeat Obama and the socialists" and "Texas should be free again, it should be an independent nation."

Hotze also featured prominently in the defeat of 2015's Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (calling the legislation a "Satanic movement"), and failed in his push for Texas' bathroom bill (2017).

After the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, Hotze spoke at the kick-off for anti-gay marriage organization Real Marriage: One Man/One Woman for Life, saying of same-sex marriage proponents, "They want to intimidate individuals, churches, schools and families to celebrate those that participate in anal sex. That's what they love and enjoy: anal sex. And that's bad, that's evil. It's a terrible thing to try to do and they want to try to teach it to kids in schools, […] Kids will be encouraged to practice sodomy in kindergarten."

Hotze has opposed a section of the Affordable Care Act that mandates insurance providers to cover pre-exposure prophylaxis for the prevention of HIV.

His company is the lead plaintiff in Braidwood Management v. Becerra, a suit filed in the Northern District of Texas by a group of conservative Christian employers in opposition to the mandate.

In the lawsuit, Hotze claims that he opposes paying for a health insurance plan that covers drugs like Truvada or Descovy "because these drugs facilitate or encourage homosexual behavior, which is contrary to Dr. Hotze’s sincere religious beliefs."

In 2016, Hotze was a leading supporter of Woodfill's unsuccessful far-right campaign for chairman of the Texas Republican Party.

Hotze has promoted conspiracy theories such as QAnon and has asserted that the COVID-19 pandemic was a "global ritual" to "inject experimental nano bots and chemi-kills into our bodies to alter our DNA using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to turn us into zombie-like, controlled masses and weapons of war."

, Hotze led the Conservative Republicans of Texas; the organization, which describes itself as promoting "constitutional liberties based upon Biblical principles", was designated in 2016 by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBT hate group.

In 2016, Hotze likened LGBT people to termites, saying they "eat away at the very moral fabric of the foundation of our country."

The Houston-based Hotze is opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage.

In 2018, an environmental organization filed suit against Hotze's businesses, alleging that some of its consumer products contained undisclosed quantities of lead; that suit is pending.

Hotze published a book, Hormones, Health and Happiness, through an Austin, Texas vanity press.

Hotze is known as a supporter of a variety of right-wing political causes: against LGBT anti-discrimination protections, against COVID vaccine mandates, and as a proponent of Donald Trump's false claims that he was cheated in the 2020 presidential election.

Hotze is currently under criminal indictment on two charges (unlawful restraint and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon), for his alleged involvement in a private investigation into supposed "voter fraud" that resulted in a private investigator (who was hired by Hotze) attacking and holding an air conditioning repairman at gunpoint.

In December 2020, Vice described Hotze's medical practice as "hawking 'alternative treatments' for postpartum depression, aging, thyroid problems, and even COVID-19".

Hotze has promoted various fringe and pseudoscientific medical claims, such as the existence of "yeast hypersensitivity syndrome"; the use of colloidal silver as a cure for various diseases; and the use of non-standard drugs for hypothyroidism.

A seller of hormone therapy products, Hotze gained wealth through a chain of "wellness centers" in Texas.

He asserted that his line of bioidentical hormones prevented cancer, a claim that lacks scientific support.

A power broker in Texas Republican circles, he is influential among the Texas religious right, and was described by The Texas Tribune in 2020 as "one of most prolific culture warriors on the right in Texas."

He has donated to Republican politicians and candidates, including US$12600 2020 to U.S. Senator John Cornyn, and is a major ally of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.

In March 2020, Hotze claimed that coronavirus disease 2019 was an invention of the "deep state" designed to sabotage the presidency of Donald Trump.

Hotze later filed at least eight lawsuits challenging public health measures adopted by the State of Texas, Harris County, and the City of Houston to prevent the spread of the virus.

In April, he sued Lina Hidalgo, the county judge of Harris County, Texas, for mandating the wearing of face masks.

Hotze's request to block the county order was rejected by the court.

In June, he filed suits against Texas Governor Greg Abbott, alleging that contact tracing violated the US Constitution's First Amendment, privacy, Due Process, and Equal Protection provisions, and that the governor's state-wide face mask requirement was unlawful.

Hotze also sued Abbott over his executive orders closing nonessential businesses during the pandemic and sued the city of Houston over its decision to bar the Republican Party of Texas from holding an in-person convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center during the pandemic; both of those suits were dismissed.

In the 2020 elections, Hotze joined Texas Representative Steve Toth, a Harris County Republican, in attempting to have 127,000 Harris County votes rejected for being cast via drive-thru voting (claiming it to be an unlawful expansion of curbside voting).

The Supreme Court of Texas rejected the lawsuit, prompting Hotze and Toth to pursue the claim in federal court.