In case you're not familiar, Steven Crowder is a conservative comedian with a popular YouTube show called "Louder with Crowder". It used to be my favorite YouTube show, but it went downhill after some of the staff left in 2018, due to a falling out with Crowder. Between that and Crowder trying too hard to appeal to the conspiratorial right, I've mostly lost interest in the show, though I still watch occasionally.
Crowder is a religious Christian. He has mostly kept that out of his program, but he makes no secret of it. However, when he was younger, he made a big deal of the fact that he was practicing abstinence with his girlfriend until he got married, and that both were virgins when they finally wedded. (Interestingly, he never mentions this anymore, presumably because it would make him look uncool to his mostly male audience.)
His wife is currently pregnant with twins. She's tall, blonde, and very pretty, but is also a religious Christian like him.
There have been some accusations over the years that Crowder is a closeted gay or bisexual, but most of this stems from the fact that he used to do outrageous skits and pranks while wearing women's clothes. However, the women's clothing always had a purpose in the segments, and he wasn't just doing it to crossdress. Still, some of his detractors -- including fired former writer (and crazy person) Owen Benjamin -- insisted he wasn't straight. However, there was never any kind of real evidence to this claim.
There still is no such evidence, but there's a claim on Twitter today which is getting some attention. Lucas Santo Bouge, a 28-year-old "gender non-conforming" person, is accusing Crowder of giving him $1,000 for sex when he was 17, which would have been around 2010.
https://twitter.com/LucasSantoBouge/status/1369129290894172161
When some started to doubt Lucas' story, and claimed he was presenting no evidence, he came back with these defiant tweets:
https://twitter.com/LucasSantoBouge/status/1369419899957837836
https://twitter.com/LucasSantoBouge/status/1369449649023619075
https://twitter.com/LucasSantoBouge/status/1369515513538179077
So is this true? Did Crowder really pay this bearded "lady" for sex in 2010?
Obviously there's no way to know the truth, but after looking into it a bit, I believe the answer is NO.
Let me count the ways:
1) Lucas notably refused to state exactly where and when this occurred, aside from him being "17" at the time. This is already suspicious, because Crowder could easily disprove the accusation by showing that he wasn't at the location at the time Lucas claimed it occurred. This also prevents people who knew Lucas back then from calling out any inaccuracies. From what I can tell, Lucas has never lived in Michigan, where Crowder lived in 2010. Now, it's possible that Crowder did this while on the road, but the lack of detail already makes this questionable.
2) Lucas is on the extreme political left, and is obsessed with politics. It encompasses almost all of his Twitter activity. He even goes after Joe Biden for being too far right! While this doesn't disprove the accusation, it makes it a bit more suspect, as he would have motive to attempt to humiliate a notable media figure on the other side.
3) Lucas' own Facebook profile claims that he's currently seeking a position in Reality TV. Even more motive to make a claim like this?
4) He claims Crowder was threatening to sue him if he were to come forward, but presents no evidence of this. Why not? Screen shots of these threats would go a long way.
5) The "I don't owe anybody anything" excuse, regarding proof, is straight out of the internet liar's playbook. Nobody forced him to come forward with this story. He did it on his own, and in very public fashion. So, yes, he does owe at least a modicum of proof to the public if he wants to be taken seriously with such a sensational accusation about a known public figure.
Lucas already has a brief history on reality TV, in fact. He appeared briefly on the Lifetime show "Prison Wives Club" in 2014. He appears about 45 seconds into this clip:
Here is Lucas today. He lives in Las Vegas, but doesn't appear to have any connection to the poker or gambling world.
Here's a video of Steven Crowder from December 2010, somewhat around the time this was alleged to have occurred:
I guess it's possible, but this smells like Smollett from here.