Former president Donald Trump’s working mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance, is being known as out for hypocrisy after a picture circulated of someone who seems to be Vance dressed as a lady. A photograph allegedly displaying Vance wearingdrag throughout his Yale Legislation College days ignited calls of hypocrisy given the Republican’s long-standing opposition to LGBTQ+ rights.
The picture, which reveals a person presupposed to be Vance carrying a blonde wig, black shirt, and a skirt, was posted on X (previously Twitter) by podcast host and social media influencer Matt Bernstein on Sunday. It reveals the particular person in ladies’s clothes enjoying the consuming sport, beer pong. The put up rapidly lit up the web, with over 10 million views on Monday simply on X. The picture started trending underneath the hashtag #SofaLoren, a play on the identify of Italian actress Sophia Loren and a reference to an unproven declare that Vance as soon as engaged in sexual exercise with a bit of furnishings.
Associated: How JD Vance went from pondering he was homosexual and altering his identify twice to being an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist
The image was allegedly taken at a celebration in 2012 by one among Vance’s classmates whereas he was finding out at Yale. The picture was shared inside a bunch chat earlier than being despatched to Bernstein by Travis Whitfill, a Yale alum. Whitfill confirmed his position in surfacing the picture, writing on X, “I used to be the supply of the photograph (despatched by way of pals to you). This was taken in 2012 (the identical time I used to be at Yale). Picture was taken by a classmate and despatched to me. Thanks for sharing.”
Whitfill didn’t instantly reply to The Advocate’s request for remark.
The Trump-Vance marketing campaign has not remarked on the picture nor responded to The Advocate’s request for remark.
The drag photograph stands in opposition to Vance’s political positions. Lately, he has positioned himself as a staunch opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, primarily specializing in limiting transgender rights and entry to gender-affirming care.
Human Rights Marketing campaign nationwide press secretary Brandon Wolf pointed to Vance’s hypocrisy in remarks to The Advocate.
“Isn’t it fascinating that MAGA politicians like JD Vance assume that they’re the one ones who deserve freedoms? People are uninterested in hypocrites who wish to inform everybody else what to learn, what to put on, and who to be,” Wolf mentioned. “That’s why Trump, Vance, and their Undertaking 2025 nightmare are flailing. As Governor Walz says, we’d all be higher off if MAGA politicians adopted a Golden Rule: thoughts your personal rattling enterprise.”
Vance launched the so-called Shield Kids’s Innocence Act, which seeks to criminalize gender-affirming take care of minors, and his efforts to erase LGBTQ+ identities from the U.S. census. Vance has additionally launched the Passport Sanity Act, which goals to ban using “X” gender markers on U.S. passports, and has repeatedly unfold false rhetoric about LGBTQ+ points, together with labeling those that oppose anti-LGBTQ+ laws as “groomers.”
GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis condemned Vance’s obvious double requirements in an announcement to The Advocate.
“What would you name an anti-LGBTQ extremist who, because it seems, has a historical past of dressing in drag? A hypocrite,” Ellis mentioned. “The anti-LGBTQ hate that Vance spews is in stark distinction to the regulation scholar who counted a trans classmate as a detailed buddy for years and apparently wearing drag himself. Anybody who has donned drag is aware of that it’s not dangerous: drag might be stunning, enjoyable, and empowering, like several inventive efficiency.”
Vance’s opposition to affirming one’s identification contrasts starkly along with his resolution to vary his identify a number of occasions all through his life. Born James Donald Bowman, Vance modified his surname to Hamel after his stepfather earlier than ultimately deciding on Vance to honor his grandmother.
The photograph controversy has sparked a wave of reactions on social media, with feedback on Bernstein’s platforms being notably unrelenting. On Instagram, singer Demi Lovato quipped, “Introducing Anitta Sofa!” whereas drag queen and local weather activist Pattie Gonia wrote, “sashay the f*ck away jd.” Instructor and content material creator Flint Del Sol added, “If he was extra open to studying from our group we might have helped with that wig.”
On X, one person commented, “I’ll give JD Vance this—his eyeliner is completely on level in that photograph… so significantly better than no matter 90s boy band man liner he’s received occurring now.”
One other emphasised the extra important situation: “Bear in mind: It’s not about J.D. Vance in drag; it’s the hypocrisy.”
On Monday morning, Bernstein posted a second photograph of the particular person, who seems to be Vance, this time hanging a pose whereas wearing drag.
“A second photograph has hit my inbox,” Bernstein wrote alongside the picture, which instantly went viral.
“Vance’s anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, a lot of it rooted within the lie that queer adults who carry out in drag—and all queer adults—are in some way harmful, is disgusting and wildly out of contact with People’ values,” Ellis mentioned. “Voters by and huge reject marketing campaign ways rooted in anti-LGBTQ hate, and People help equality for LGBTQ folks.”
Editor’s word: This story was up to date to incorporate a second photograph of an individual who seems to be like JD Vance wearing drag.