Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad controversy: 5 things to know

4. Sweeney is a registered Republican but has embraced Leftist views  

Buzzfeed reported earlier this month that Sweeney was registered with the Republican Party of Florida as of June 2024. Despite her nominal affiliation with the Republican Party, which is generally associated with conservative views, Sweeney has embraced progressive causes in the past. 

On the issue of abortion, in a 2021 interview with Flaunt magazine, Sweeney declared, “I don’t like getting into political topics, but I do believe that a woman has the right to be able to decide over her body.”

In May 2020, just days after the death of George Floyd in police custody sparked national outrage and protests that led to billions of dollars in property damage and over 20 murders nartionwide, Sweeney published an X post proclaiming, “we need to do better” and “the hate in this world needs to end,” along with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. The post included a link to a webpage containing information for people seeking to advance the cause of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

While many expressed opposition to the treatment of Floyd, the Black Lives Matter organization has faced criticism from Christians and conservatives for its hostility toward the nuclear family and its co-founder’s embrace of Marxism.

In a 2018 X post promoting the show “Everything Sucks!,” which she starred in, Sweeney shared a video clip highlighting “LGBT representation, then and now” as she made it clear she was “so proud of this show.”

The video clip mentioned how then-President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act banning same-sex marriage in 1996, and that “there was little to no LGBTQ+ representation on screen in the early ‘90s.”

The show centers around a lesbian who “grapples with embracing her sexuality without LGBTQ+ role models in pop culture.” A trailer promoting the series shows how comedian Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian in 1997 and how that act changed the media landscape and led to a “huge increase in LGBTQ+ representation.” The trailer also includes footage of same-sex kissing and concludes with the statement, “We still have a long way to go,” while reflecting on “how far we’ve come.”