diff --git a/src/urllib3/connection.py b/src/urllib3/connection.py
index 0318601bbd..3a42734120 100644
--- a/src/urllib3/connection.py
+++ b/src/urllib3/connection.py
@@ -272,6 +272,13 @@ def proxy_is_forwarding(self) -> bool:
         """
         return bool(self.proxy) and self._tunnel_host is None
 
+    @property
+    def proxy_is_tunneling(self) -> bool:
+        """
+        Return True if a tunneling proxy is configured, else return False
+        """
+        return self._tunnel_host is not None
+
     def close(self) -> None:
         try:
             super().close()
@@ -618,7 +625,7 @@ def connect(self) -> None:
         tls_in_tls = False
 
         # Do we need to establish a tunnel?
-        if self._tunnel_host is not None:
+        if self.proxy_is_tunneling:
             # We're tunneling to an HTTPS origin so need to do TLS-in-TLS.
             if self._tunnel_scheme == "https":
                 # _connect_tls_proxy will verify and assign proxy_is_verified
@@ -632,7 +639,7 @@ def connect(self) -> None:
 
             self._tunnel()  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
             # Override the host with the one we're requesting data from.
-            server_hostname = self._tunnel_host
+            server_hostname = self._tunnel_host  # type: ignore[assignment]
 
         if self.server_hostname is not None:
             server_hostname = self.server_hostname