JD Vance
JD Vance (Photo: Gage Skidmore, via CC BY-SA 2.0)

A second photo showing JD Vance wearing women’s clothing has gone viral. The first pic appeared on Sunday. Podcaster Matt Bernstein shared it to X

The photo apparently dates back to Yale Law School in 2012. Vance was studying there at the time. A former Yale student named, Travis Whitfill, located the image. He told the Daily Beast it’s from a Halloween party. Vance’s office did not respond to a request for comment and did not deny the photo was of Vance. 

Of course, the internet had a field day when the photo of Vance, a consistent opponent of LGBTQ+ rights who supports ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills for schools, in drag appeared. Internet users quickly came up with the drag name Sofa Loren for Vance.

The internet reacted with further glee when a second picture of Vance, probably taken at the same Halloween party, popped up yesterday afternoon. 

This time, Matt Bernstein linked to a website—jdvanceindrag.com— encouraging people to vote in the November election. 

Let’s look at some reactions to Vance’s new, old photo.

Glenn Close

Donald Trump announced he’d chosen JD Vance to be his running mate at the Republican National Convention last month. However, rather than give Trump’s campaign a boost, Vance appears not to have enthused many potential voters. 

Media coverage has focused on his anti-abortion stance and comments he made in 2021 dismissing “miserable … childless cat ladies”. 

Vance insists this was taken out of context. He says he was criticizing leftwing politicians for being “anti-child”, and he still believes that’s the case. 

Many have trashed Vance’s comments, including actress Jennifer Aniston, who does not have children. 

The latest Hollywood figure to reference them is Glenn Close. The much-loved, award-winning actress played the part of Vance’s grandmother in the movie adaptation of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. 

Close does have a daughter. But she’s also a proud cat owner. On her personal Instagram on Sunday, she posted a photo with her cat, Eve. Close captioned it, “Eve would have left a bleeding mouse head in the bed of anyone who criticized any kind of lady with a CAT!”

This is not the first time Close has appeared to knock Vance. Last week she posted a meme knocking anti-abortionists.

In a vintage cartoon, a nurse tends a girl in a bed. 

“Sorry Sally, This is Texas, you’ll have to keep your daddy’s baby”, says the nurse. Texas has enacted a near-total abortion ban. 

“We sure wouldn’t want you to end up childless with cats!” the nurse continues.

Vance defended by wife

Vance’s “childless cat ladies” quip was defended last week by his wife, Usha. She gave her first solo interview to Fox News. The couple have three children.

“The reality is, JD made a quote – I mean, he made a quip, and he made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive,” Usha Vance said. “And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase.”

“What he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder,” she continued.

“JD, absolutely at the time and today, would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really was struggling with that,” she said. “I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families, and many of those reasons are very good.”

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