A milkshake ducking for the ages.

Main Character Syndrome

Two leaked photos appear to show GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance dressed in drag during his time Yale Law School, which is yet more proof that being the main character online is nothing if not a cataclysmic affair that discriminates against no one.

Posted on X-formerly-Twitter by influencer Matt Bernstein, better known by their handle "mattxiv," the dispo@mattxiv via Xsable camera-quality photos show someone who almost certainly is Vance (né James Donald Bowman) wearing a long blonde wig, a black t-shirt with a lengthy silver necklace, and a bohemian-esque brown skirt in a series of faux-modeling poses.

Though incriminating photos of politicians and other public figures have become almost commonplace, these snaps — which a Vance spokesperson did not deny depicted the senator when contacted by the Daily Beast — are particularly curious not just for the fact of their leaking, but because the Yale man in question has built his support among Republicans by denigrating queer and trans people.

Dangerous Trajectory

As an art form, drag dates back to at least the 19th century and — despite being associated with modern LGBTQ culture — doesn't suggest anything besides a person's gender or sexuality. In fact, dressing in drag was a somewhat problematic staple for cisgender male comedians until quite recently — when people of JD Vance's political persuasion made it a staple of arguments about American morality.

Obviously, we don't know the circumstances behind these photos that seem very likely to depict the name and platform-changing freshman senator from Ohio.

What we do know is — according to a former friend of Vance's from Yale who spoke to the New York Times — Vance at one point was reportedly so supportive of a trans friend's gender-affirming surgery, he brought them homemade baked goods while they were recovering.

How one goes from baking their friend top surgery treats to calling trans people "groomers" seems like an obvious matter of political expediency, but given the dangerous trajectory Vance has taken, this will likely serve as a much larger-than-normal scale lesson about the dangers of hypocrisy (and milkshake ducking) that the rest of America, no matter their politics, stands to benefit from.

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