PicoBlog

This staffer should be fired and charged. This isn’t complicated.

This story needed to be run. Some might ask what the social function of publishing this is, particularly given the backlash it will provoke; but it’s a public official committing an illegal, disrespectful act in a government building. It’s a scoop worth releasing.

Criticising his actions isn’t homophobic. The staff released a statement on LinkedIn, treating himself as a ‘victim’ in this, with no remorse or regret for what he did. This is insane; and alluding that this is homophobic just reinforces the worst stereotypes against gay men, which generations of gay rights activists have fought against.

This doesn’t excuse homophobia. Many on the populist right have taken the opportunity here to indulge in Falwell-esque homophobia, describing the acts in needlessly graphic, degrading, homophobic way. These people are outraged; but they are also using this as an opportunity to vent their homophobic feelings. It would be equally as bad if this were a straight couple; being gay is irrelevant for this. To that end;

This is of equal badness to the Boebert episode. This is a more graphic act, but it was in an empty area, by someone of no note, and we wouldn’t know about it without this video releasing. The Boebert episode was less graphic, but was in a crowd, with children around her, and she’s an elected official. She should have been expelled from Congress for this, and charged; just as this guy should be immediately fired and charged.

Sharing sexual imagery of yourself shouldn’t rule you out from public service. The staffer posted other, less lude pictures of himself in skimpy underwear — at the beach and seemingly attending the Folsom Street Fair — and doing this had no impact on his ability to serve the Senator; an important job. I don’t care if my plumber has an OnlyFans page, if he will fix my shower; I apply the same logic here, and think that more employers should prioritize talent at the role, and ignore the personal life of the employee. It’s bringing this to a public building, in the workplace, that he crossed the line.

Populist conservatives who spread the videos on Twitter are hypocrites. Not only did they not give a damn about the Boerbert episode; many of the same conservative populist accounts that say drag queens are ‘grooming’ children and wanted a NSFW label put on Jill Biden’s Christmas tap-dancing video are sharing amateur gay porn on their Twitter account with no reservations. If a left-wing journalist was retweeting gay porn to their account, these same people would (rightfully) criticise it. Just because this was shot in the Senate should make no difference. Those who actually care about the erosion of sexual norms and public decency wouldn’t publicise this further by spreading the photos/videos. And more generally:

The photos/videos shouldn’t have been released. Our readers didn’t need or want to see this; the staffer shouldn’t have these spread around, from a revenge porn perspective (just because he recorded it, doesn’t mean it should be shared everywhere); and, though I’m very pro-sex work and supporting the industry and developing healthier norms around it, this was obviously going to turn into a rank spectacle, so better not to indulge. The Spectator made the right call here; The Daily Caller did not.

This isn’t a big deal. Is it pretty disgraceful and awful? Yes. But nobody saw it until the videos released, and I wish that they hadn’t been, he’d just been fired and charged, and that was it. There are way bigger issues in US politics; it’s just that this one catches eyeballs.

This isn’t ordinary behaviour in Congress. There’s this myth that Washington is some debauched House of Cards cesspool of perversion, sex, drugs, and conspiracies; and people like Madison Cawthorn saying as much on podcasts didn’t help. From everything I know, that’s not true. This is usually a very boring, dry place, though one overrepresented by gay men, as Jamie Kirchick has written about.

This isn’t worse than January 6. I can’t believe I need to say this, but various people on Twitter are arguing this??? This was an indecent act, not an attempt to stop a democratic process. People arguing against this are mad.

Use condoms.