South Dakota’s antigay, anti-mask governor Kristi Noem is being dragged on Twitter after she hosted a 25 person dinner party at her home earlier this week.
Noem, who opposes same-sex marriage and believes homophobia is “religious freedom”, invited almost two dozen staffers over for dinner and shared a photo from the event on Twitter, along with the caption, “Love having our legislative pages over for dinner! We could not get through session without their help.”
All but one person in the photo is wearing a mask.
Love having our legislative pages over for dinner! We could not get through session without their help. ?? pic.twitter.com/OOT3pAtaER
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) February 9, 2021
Many are criticizing Noem’s dinner event, calling it irresponsible to have that many people in an enclosed space for several hours without masks during an ongoing pandemic.
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South Dakota has been one of the worst hit states per capita when it comes to coronavirus, with more than 100,000 cases and 1,800 deaths from the virus. Much of this has to do with Noem, a fervent Trump supporter, refusing to mandate any sort of safety precautions.
Although people have begun receiving the coronavirus vaccine, health officials say that wearing masks and practicing social distancing will still be necessary to help slow the spread of the virus for the foreseeable future.
Here’s how Twitter has responded to Noem’s dinner party…
You’re failing the human test. https://t.co/NT919zXVwF
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) February 9, 2021
What did you serve for dinner? Besides Covid, I mean.
— KD 📚🌎🉑🌊🇺🇸 (@kdnerak33) February 9, 2021
Feel badly for this young woman. pic.twitter.com/CaFhgQrwQp
— Mangy Jay (@magi_jay) February 9, 2021
— Arya Stark’s BFF (@cuspo22) February 9, 2021
At least when they all get COVID-19 their survival chances are higher than, say, that of a middle-aged couple.
— Glenn Craven (@GlennCraven) February 9, 2021
Her strength in the face of overwhelming pressure is truly impressive and admirable pic.twitter.com/sq0uFnCamV
— TheGOPSubvertsDemocracy (@athevs1) February 9, 2021
The governor of South Dakota is bragging about gathering people together in close proximity without masks during a pandemic. 1 in 500 people in her state has already died from Covid. https://t.co/HWYWwshOIj
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2021
Girl with the mask: pic.twitter.com/IDrK1js6vp
— Lucas Grant (@RedWhiteAndLou) February 9, 2021
Kristi doesn’t just encourage superspreader events. She holds them too.
— Clark (@Clark408) February 10, 2021
Shoutout to the 1 brave soul who passed a science course. https://t.co/ItOq4lcftO
— David Brauer (@dbrauer) February 9, 2021
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
ted72
Hope no one dies from this.
cuteguy
Where the outrage on the right? Or even the left? Gavin Newsom got blasted for having a dinner party with half as much ppl and now ppl are asking for his head. The Dems have to stop being doormats and get angry and call for this cray bish to be recalled. Instead they’re drinking their green tea and eating their avocado toast
BaltoSteve
I suspect that if this were a case where you reap what you sow, she would be incapable of seeing the connection between cause and effect.
barryaksarben
An interesting side to this is that there are just a few young men in this group. Most homophobic women dont hire young men . There homophobia is so strong in them they see gays everywhere which i guess is correct
Kangol2
Kristi Noem is the same person who claimed that under her leadership her state had done well with Covid-19, except that statistically it has been one of the worst hit in the US. She is a Don the Con-loving fanatic and right in keeping with the contemporary GOP. Putting these young people and anyone they come into contact with in danger is no concern to her; in fact, doing so is clearly for her a badge of her political, cultist convictions. The Kristi Noems are legion out there, though, so we need to be careful about dismissing them when they are actually quite dangerous.