A Congressional Candidate Accidentally Perfected Something Unexpected: The Totally-Fine-Kinda-Charming Sex “Scandal”

Relationships Welcome to the Age of the Charming Political “Sex Scandal” A gay congressional candidate did a BDSM photo shoot roughly 1 million years ago. Finally—mercifully—no one cares. By Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. Sign in or create an account to better manage your email preferences. Unsubscribe from email alerts Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from email alerts for Christina Cauterucci? Sept 18, 20265:45 AM Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Patrick McMullan via Getty Images. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. By the standards of advertisements for sex paraphernalia, the photos of Christopher Gallant are unremarkable, even quaint. But by the standards of a U.S. congressional campaign, they’re a little out there. In a series of images published this week by the New York Post and conservative local news outlet Messenger Papers, the Democrat running to flip a district on Long Island poses in various pieces of bondage gear, sometimes in sex positions with another naked man. Some photos show him in a collar attached to a padlock and chain; in others, he sports a muzzle and mitts. One picture depicts the candidate on all fours, in a cage, on the receiving end of an intimate encounter. According to Gallant’s lawyer, the photos were taken several years ago “during a private, consensual photo session involving Chris and his then-partner.” In a statement to the New York Times, she said the candidate was friends with the owner of San Francisco kink outfitter Mr. S Leather, and Gallant let Mr. S use the images to promote the shop’s wares. The Post reports that the photos were on the store’s website from 2011 to 2020. Conservatives are suggesting that the photos reveal Gallant to be undeserving of public office. On Facebook, the Suffolk County Conservative Party linked to the Post’s story and shared a photo of Gallant wearing a chest harness. “Is this who you want to represent us in Washington DC?” the party wrote. Democrats aren’t flinching. The Suffolk County Democratic Committee responded to the release of the photos with an Instagram post reiterating the more respectable entries on Gallant’s résumé: “Guardsman, Fire Fighter, Air Traffic Controller, Union Leader.” Under a photo of the candidate in his Army fatigues, the post pooh-poohs the idea that Gallant’s sexy pics say anything important about him beyond one thing: “There is now documented proof that Chris Gallant has a six-pack.” At one time, photos such as these might have torpedoed a congressional campaign. That’s probably why Gallant asked Mr. S to take the photos down when, his lawyer explained, he “began considering a future in public service.” But while Gallant’s chances of winning are still pretty slim—the Republican incumbent won by 10 points in 2024, and the Cook Political Report rates the district as solid GOP—there is no reason to believe that a bunch of photos of consensual sex acts taken 15-plus years ago to promote a friend’s business will cost Gallant many votes. Sure, America in 2026 isn’t quite the “love is love” paradise it once seemed on track to become. Support for LGBTQ+ people is wilting, and gay politicians are being persecuted in horrifying ways. But the voters of Gallant’s district knew he was gay long before those photos emerged this week. Their opinions of him probably won’t be moved one way or the other by a glimpse of some fetish gear, which is an increasingly mainstream part of gay culture. The sight of a chest harness just doesn’t disturb the normies the way it used to; even the blandest, preppiest gay guy you know probably wore one to Pride this year. Plus, voters don’t seem to care as much about the sex lives of their elected representatives as they used to. When politicians resign or get booted from office for sex reasons these days, it’s usually because they did something immoral, like have an affair with a staffer or make a habit of sexual harassment. Even that kind of bad behavior doesn’t always make an impact: Certain Republicans can repeatedly cheat on their wives or be found liable for sexual assault and stubbornly stick it out in office. Surely a strapping military man can have an honest bit of muzzled, consensual sex in his rip-roarin’ 20s and maintain his good standing in the public eye. The Messenger Papers’ report suggests that the Gallant pics point to yet another instance of “vetting problems for Democrats” alongside former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, whose campaign flamed out after a series of revelations and accusations. But Platner’s alleged and admitted behavior was genuinely troubling: He blamed rape victims for their own assaults in Reddit posts, got a tattoo of a Nazi symbol (though he claims he didn’t know what it was), sexted several women who weren’t his wife, and reportedly subjected former girlfriends to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. These actions raised legitimate concerns about his trustworthiness, his commitment to the values he professed, and his ability to carry out a political agenda without bringing shame on his party. If the photos of Gallant truly depict a consensual assignation, and if he wasn’t betraying anyone’s trust by engaging in it, then there’s no reason at all to look askance at his actions. The efforts Gallant’s lawyer is taking to defend him are excessive, though understandable under the circumstances: In her statement, she emphasized that Gallant and his photo-shoot companion were “in a committed four-year relationship,” as if a depiction of casual sex would have been harder to justify. But this race is a good chance for Democrats to practice acclimatizing voters to the right kind of candidate sex story: the kind where no one did anything wrong. There has been much talk among Democrats in recent years about the need to empower a new class of relatable, imperfect political leaders, as opposed to the upper-middle-class standard-bearers who’ve been shaping their lives to be as unobjectionable and electable as possible since grade school. (Ken Klippenstein, a political Substacker who held a torch for Platner, calls these “smoothgroin” politicians, as in a neutered Ken doll.) That’s how a consultant with his own history of sexual misconduct allegations ended up hand-picking Platner, and why supporters defended Platner to the end on the argument that his misdeeds only made him more of an everyman. But Platner’s brand of relatability, the kind that made him relatable to men who disrespect the women in their lives, is not the one the party should be shooting for. Instead, if Democrats want to champion lustier leaders, they should back the demonstrably bulgegroined (?) likes of Gallant, whose sexual revelations come with a smiling sex partner, a veneer of gay pride, and a set of cute photos lit with the nostalgia-piquing digital camera flash of the early 2010s. He certainly wasn’t calculating an eventual run for federal office when he posed for those pictures, and there’s nothing about them that raises questions about his values. If anything, they suggest that Gallant might have the maturity and self-confidence necessary to negotiate a consensual BDSM scene. That’s the kind of Congress-ready skillset you won’t develop at McKinsey. Congress Politics Relationships Sex New York LGBTQ+