Desperate to save the Republican Senate majority, JD Vance decided to take an ugly homophobic swipe at James Talarico, the Texas Democratic Senate candidate.
Vance also tried to smear Talarico with the age-old stereotype that gay men are pedophiles, trying to indoctrinate children— a smear that goes back to Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” crusade in the 70s. This is sickening, but let’s not forget how Vance helped Trump push the lie that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets.
To be clear, Talarico is not gay, has a girlfriend and seems completely comfortable in his skin as a heterosexual man, lacking the insecurity around masculinity that we see in so much of MAGA. And he’s been a supporter of equality for LGBTQ people. A seminary student who’s not a chest-thumping he-man, Talarico has been portrayed by Republicans as weak and girly—itself misogynistic—and now Vance is moving into equating that with being gay.
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At a rally for Ken Paxton in Tyler, Texas, this week, Vance responded to a supporter in the crowd who was lauding him. “I love you too sir,” Vance said. “In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico.”
The crowd applauded as Vance got the desired effect—whipping up homophobic sentiment. Last month, Vance, coupling his attacks with the GOP’s obsessive demonization of transgender people, implied Talarico was a pedophile, saying, “He’s just a guy who shows a weird focus on transgender kids and drag queens…He says a lot of weird stuff, and I think typically people who say stuff like that tend to have some pretty unusual search histories. Maybe he doesn’t—just guessing, but I wouldn’t want to see it.”
At the rally this week, he continued in that vein, picking up on a 2023 interview in which Talarico said, “I love—and I’m just going to say this because it’s on my mind—the trans children who showed up yesterday at the State Capitol to advocate for their humanity. They shouldn’t have to, but it was an inspiration to watch.”
Vance, taking the interview out of context, told the crowd that Talarico had said he “loves” above everyone else “trans children,” adding, “You gotta wonder what the internet search history of a man like that looks like. Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t want to find out. Neither do I.”
This was grade-A demagoguery directed at both trans people and gay men. And yet, too much of the media is letting it slide as they once again lower the bar for MAGA figures.
The New York Times published a story in which the headline called it an example of Vance’s “Penchant for Personal Broadsides,” as if this is just another part of the acceptable political banter these days.
The backlash to Vance’s comments on social media was followed by a backlash to the New York Times story. The paper later changed the headline on the front page (though not on the story when you click through.)
The Times referred to Vance’s suggestion that Talarico was gay as something that was “criticized as homophobic.” Sorry, but if a politician made a pejorative joke suggesting a white person was Black or a man was a woman, they would respectively be called racist and misogynistic, not described with the qualifier “criticized as.”
There was no discussion in the media reports of the fact that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is gay, and what the administration was thus saying about his fitness to serve—nor even a request for comment from Bessent or from the White House about Bessent. And while the Times piece reported on Vance’s remarks about Talarico and trans people, like much of the rest of the media there was no discussion of the classic grotesque stereotype Vance was promoting, equating gay people with pedophiles.
This was a new low for an administration that, while vilifying trans people horrendously in its second term, has sought to portray itself as inclusive of some gay people—namely the gay men who have worked within it, such as Bessent and Richard Grenell. And let’s not forget that Trump, in his first term, unfurled a rainbow flag at an event, talked of his support for “LGBTQ” people and had Peter Thiel, a gay billionaire—who has bankrolled Vance—speak at the Republican National Convention and talk about being gay and how accepted he felt.
There was a much bigger story here about how low Vance and the Trump administration have sunk in their demonization of groups, and the Times, like much of the rest of the media, just let it go.
But we should not stand for it, particularly as Vance positions himself for a presidential run in 2028. This administration has been hostile to LGBTQ rights across the board. While its vile focus on transgender people has been most prominent, it has, with MAGA Republicans in Congress, defunded health care programs for LGBTQ people, cut aid for gay seniors, drastically cut funding for AIDS treatment and research and refused to even acknowledge Pride.
Now they’re overtly using “gay” as a slur, using it to smear people—just as Trump and Pete Hegseth are now using the word “trannie”—and promoting the idea that gay people are pedophiles. That needs to be underscored in a big way, and not just sloughed off as the now-acceptable MAGA political banter.
JD is an idiot. He'd be nowhere if he didn't have Peter Theil's money behind him. Acts religious, but he's a hypocrite.
Thanks Michelangelo ... sharing. How low can he go? Just wait and see.