Sen. Josh Hawley got an unexpected drag makeover on Twitter this week and now life will never be the same again.
It all started when the 41-year-old homophobe told “Axios on HBO” that he plans to make toxic masculinity a signature political issue because far too many people on “the left” are telling guys like him, “You’re part of the problem. … Your masculinity is inherently problematic.”
This prompted political strategist Rick Wilson, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, to tweet: “I hope no one photoshops Josh Hawley in drag makeup. That would be totally wrong for the champion of American masculinity. Totally. Wrong.”
It didn’t take long before people started sharing their pictures of Hawley in drag.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Oops. pic.twitter.com/uubfP3qFu6
— Jude (@jnicky63) November 8, 2021
I would never.
Never. pic.twitter.com/UF0IjKu7Ab— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) November 8, 2021
Priscilla, Queen of the Senate pic.twitter.com/jsPTXyZqvm
— ⚽️ SEV (@SevThPark) November 8, 2021
Scroll down for six more awful, antigay Republicans who have sported drag and other bad costumes…
Michael Ertel
Florida’s former Republican Secretary of State resigned in disgrace in 2019 mere hours after photos of him dressed in drag and blackface while posing as a Hurricane Katrina victim hit the internet. The photos were reportedly taken at a Halloween party 14 years earlier, just two months after 1,800 people died in the devastating storm. When asked for comment on the photos, a humiliated Ethel replied, “There’s nothing I can say.”
Related: Republican politician resigns after photos of him dressed as drag Hurricane Katrina victim surface
Kevin Whitt
The ex-gay Republican field organizer/QAnon enthusiast was fired from his job with the Texas GOP after participating in the January 6 insurrection earlier this year. Days later, his audition tape for RuPaul’s Drag Race surfaced online. “The reason drag is important to me and is an important part of my life, is that drag is like therapy for me,” Whitt said in the video, “and hey, it’s not like I have to pay a therapist!”
Related: WATCH: “Ex-gay” QAnon queen’s ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ audition tape resurfaces
Dov Hikind
The homophobic New York Assemblyman issued an “I’m sorry you were offended” apology in 2013 when pictures of him dressed as a 1970s basketball player star, complete with a blackface and an afro, began circulating on social media. Speaking to reporter Zev Brenner, Hikind said that if he were to do it all over again, he wouldn’t dress up as a Black person. Instead, he’d dress us as a gay person! “Maybe I would be a gay person. By the way, would that be okay, Zev? If I played a gay person next year?”
Related: Anti-Gay Politician Dons Blackface, Apologizes And Insults LGBTs
Robbie Gatti
While we’re on the subject of antigay Republicans donning blackface, during his 2017 run for a seat in the Louisiana state legislature, a photo of the self-proclaimed “unwavering conservative” and religious freedom fighter dressed as Tiger Woods at a church Halloween party in 2002 hit the interweb. “I’m sad that my opponents have taken a good night at church and turned it into negative, political mud,” Gatti said in response, “but I’m confident the voters … will not fall for their desperate attacks.” Unfortunately for Gatti, voters didn’t buy the excuse and instead elected his opponent, the equally antigay but less blatantly racist Raymond Crews.
Related: ‘Unwavering conservative’ politician Robbie Gatti doesn’t think wearing blackface is racist
Josh Mandel
trans icon josh mandel pic.twitter.com/FFRn0HetjJ
— robert schmad (@RobertSchmad) October 20, 2021
After tweeting an anti-trans slur while defending Dave Chappelle’s transphobic Netflix special in October 2021, an old photo from the Ohio Republican’s high school yearbook showing him dressed in full-on drag–with a wig, stuffed sports bra, and skin-tight biker shorts, seductively massaging another guy’s shoulders in a weight room–resurfaced. The image had previously been made public years earlier when Mandel was Ohio’s state treasurer and running for U.S. Senate. At the time, his camp said he had no memory of taking the picture.
Related: Photo of Josh Mandel in stuffed bra and wig resurfaces after he tweets transphobic slur
Rudy Giuliani
Of course, who can forget that cringeworthy video of Donald Trump sexually assaulting Rudy Giuliani dressed in drag? The comedy skit was recorded in 2000, back when sexual abuse was still considered funny and Giuliani was mayor of New York City. It was played in front of a roomful of people at the Mayor’s Inner Circle Press roast and has since been burned into everyone’s collective memory. In it, Giuliani calls Trump a “dirty boy” after the then-businessman/future president sniffs his wig and motorboats him inside a department store. Hilarious.
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore
CarrieV
Each of these politicians-in-drag is still more feminine and ladylike than Marjorie Taylor Greene.
IanHunter
I think MTG is a dude.
Den
Sadly, Mr. Gremore needs a remedial class in journalism, or at least needs to read a good dictionary definition.
Josh Hawley did not “do drag” in any way shape or form (at least not to our current knowledge). He was targeted by people with better photoshop skills than I could muster, in an attempt to humiliate and anger him: which I hope was really, really successful. But I doubt that people like him are able to be humiliated, too lacking in morals and social consciousness. I do love though how smoky eyes and red lipstick bring out how horsey his face is.
And as hideous as those two instances of blackface were, they do not fall into the conventional definition of drag.
To be fair though, “Six anti-gay right wingers who made expectedly stupid costume choices, and one who we wish had” is not the clickbait the existing headline is.
Ronbo
Graham Gremore has a long history of false stories for pay. He repeatedly posted false stories here attacking Gay Democratic Mayor and candidate Alex Morse – who ultimately lost to a very conservative and wealthy candidate. Gremore likes his new car.
GreekKeys
How dare you disparage someone’s gender expression.