Last week Chris Gallant, a Black Hawk pilot, volunteer firefighter and openly gay Democrat running for Congress against MAGA Republican Rep. Nick LaLota on Long Island, acknowledged that some BDSM photographs of him that surfaced are authentic and go back more than 15 years. They became public when the right-wing New York Post published them, turning Gallant’s modeling photos—some of which depict sexual activity with his then-partner—into a political story in what Gallant called a “political hit.”
But the entire thing appears to have backfired on the GOP—or at least deflated quickly. Gallant said the photos were taken consensually with his then-partner, stating, “I’m not embarrassed or ashamed.” And he’s argued that they have nothing to do with his qualifications as a veteran, former air-traffic controller, member of the National Guard or congressional candidate.
The national media coverage actually elevated a proud gay man, who surged on social media, got enormous support from LGBTQ people—and many others across the country—and was defended by the Democratic Party. The attention may well give him a fundraising boost.
In a time when Republican politicians have faced sexual assault and domestic abuse allegations, and one extremist GOP candidate, Brandon Herrera in Texas, has called kids “cum trophies,” this story was a big yawn. The president of the United States is an admitted adulterer, has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women and was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. A federal judge subsequently said that what the jury found Trump did constitutes rape. And the first lady herself was a model who posed nude and in sexually provocative photo shoots—something that obviously didn’t prevent Republicans from embracing her or her husband.
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The race in New York’s 1st Congressional District, rated likely Republican, was always going to be difficult for Gallant, who I’ve interviewed on my SiriusXM program several times. But rather than ruining his chances, the non-scandal has given him lots of visibility, shown him to be fearless and offered him a better opportunity to make the race competitive.
What’s most glaring about this story is what the media didn’t cover a few days later and that says a lot about the corporate media.
The Daily Mail last Thursday focused on a story that had been previously reported, but the sensational tabloid offered more details that make it much more curious and worthy of further investigation. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a married man with six children, and the unmarried Congressman Jason Smith of Missouri, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, are roommates in Washington. What the Daily Mail added to the story, first reported by Bloomberg in 2025 and subsequently by others—and even referred to by Mullin during a congressional hearing—is that Mullin owns the house, having bought it in 2023.
Mullin’s representative characterized Mullin as Smith’s “landlord” in a statement to the Daily Mail, and Smith confirmed the arrangement. But the representative declined to say how much rent Smith pays, and the Daily Mail said it could find no public documentation of rent payments.
This raises a legitimate—and newsworthy—ethics question about the financial arrangement, and it also focuses attention on the relationship between a former MMA fighter from Oklahoma and an unmarried congressman whose best friend in Congress for years was none other than Aaron Schock, the muscled, flamboyant, closeted former Illinois congressman who left Congress in disgrace amid a spending scandal and later finally came out as gay.
Of course, when I asked Schock back at the Republican National Convention in 2012 if he was gay—specifically how he could vote against allowing gays to serve openly in the military when he was gay himself—he tried to deny it without actually denying it.
“Those questions are completely ridiculous and inappropriate,” he said. He added, when asked if he was confirming that he was not gay, “I’ve said that before and I don’t think it’s worthy of further response. I think you can look it up.” Schock then walked off, abruptly ending the interview.
Schock had come under scrutiny during his time in Congress for going on lavish trips, some on taxpayer dollars. And one of his traveling companions was his friend Jason Smith, the congressman from Missouri. They even went with some of their male aides, something The Hill newspaper called “unusual” in a story about the trips coming under “scrutiny.”
Smith took a trip with Schock to Brazil along with two other House members, most of which was paid for by the Brazilian government.
But after the official business, The Hill reported, Schock, Smith and several of their male aides headed to the Brazilian gay-friendly resort spot of Canoa Quebrada. Smith and Schock also went to Argentina with their aides, in an unofficial trip in which the aides were actually on vacation time. Schock had posted Instagram photos of himself, Smith and the male aides, including Schock’s chief of staff, David Roman. Jonathon Link, a photographer who often traveled with Schock on his taxpayer-funded recreational trips, took the photos, showing the men “hanging out at a vineyard in the famed Mendoza wine region of Argentina and whitewater rafting the Andes rivers of Potrerillos.”
As The Hill reported in 2015:
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) joined his close friend Aaron Schock on campaign and government trips and exotic vacations in 2014 that are being scrutinized by federal investigators looking into alleged spending abuses by the former congressman, who resigned in March.
Revelations that Smith, 35, accompanied Schock on the campaign trip come the same week The Hill reported that Smith has hired Schock’s former chief of staff, Mark Roman, who managed the congressman’s office at the time of his spending scandal.
There’s no indication that federal prosecutors have questioned or sought records from Smith, but his participation on trips now under criminal investigation could drag one of Schock’s closest friends in Congress into his legal mess and undermine Smith’s political image as a humble, salt-of-the-earth fiscal conservative. The news has also led to chatter on Capitol Hill, where Roman’s hiring by Smith surprised many.
Smith, like Schock, also has a long record of opposing gay rights. After the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, Smith attacked the ruling, declaring, “I have never wavered in my commitment to the biblical definition of marriage.” And in 2022, he voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which wrote federal protections for same-sex marriage into law, and he has voted for spending bills that added dozens of anti-LGBTQ provisions.
In 2023, amid a feud with former MAGA congressman Matt Gaetz over his attacks on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Gaetz was widely interpreted as suggesting that Smith was closeted.
Gaetz later denied that he was referring to Smith’s sexuality, but he nonetheless was feeding into speculation that already existed about Smith.
So how did Smith and Mullin become good friends and eventual roommates? Mullin’s congressional workout group goes back to 2013, with Smith among its earliest members. By 2014, Mullin, Smith and Schock were all working out together in the regular 6:30 a.m. sessions—during the same period when Smith and Schock were close friends and traveling together.
That history makes the newly detailed Smith-Mullin living arrangement all the more worthy of ordinary journalistic curiosity. It may have a completely mundane explanation. The financial arrangement may be entirely proper. And none of Smith’s friendships or living arrangements establishes anything about his sexual orientation. But given his anti-LGBTQ political record, his history with Schock, the speculation about Smith that came from a fellow Republican member of Congress, and now the questions surrounding his financial arrangement with Mullin, there is plenty here for journalists to examine and ask questions about.
And that brings the story right back to Chris Gallant. His modeling photos from more than 15 years ago, some depicting sexual activity with his then-partner, became national news—even though he acknowledged the photographs immediately and told everyone he wasn’t ashamed of them.
Yet the longtime living arrangement between the secretary of Homeland Security and one of the most powerful members of the House—an arrangement that now raises at the very least a legitimate question about rent and congressional ethics—has received remarkably little scrutiny outside of a tabloid.
That contrast is the glaring part of the story. Gallant has nothing to hide. Maybe Smith has nothing to hide either. But why does the media seem so much more interested in the private life of the man who has already told us everything?
I've had it with these cretins. A guy who's running for Congress is gay. And proud. And out.
My straight marriage has never been affected by any couple's gay marriage. No one that I know of has married a horse -- as Rick Santorum predicted.
And whatever happened to those death panels that Sarah Palin was blathering on about?
All the GOP has to run on is fear and hatred of the "other."
Here's the thing -- the GOP gets people to vote against their own self interests by pushing anti-gay, immigrant, Mexican, transgender, etc. issues. They aren't really even issues. They are generated by the lie machines of FAUX news and other "news" outlets.
That's on the one hand. On the other, they are picking Americans' pockets.
Don't watch what they say. Watch what they do.
This double standard has protected Trump and his allies for 15 years. They say and do whatever they want, hurt people, and face really no consequences. I’m glad to see communities standing up for themselves because that is the precise way to fight this - by not taking it quietly! Call that shit out every chance you get! What consenting adults do in their bedrooms is nobody’s business. But anyone who sexually abuses children (or adults for that matter) belongs behind bars, regardless of who the F they are. I pray I’m around to see every last one of them face justice and jail time in GITMO.