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Dem House hopeful embraces the kink after gay bondage pics resurfaced

October 8, 2026 | | Print Article

New York Democrat House candidate Chris Gallant has reacted to the resurfacing of lurid images depicting him in BDSM garb by embracing the kink.

The political newbie is looking to unseat Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) in New York’s 1st congressional district in Long Island, but his longshot bid has been complicated by the photos, which were published by the New York Post last month, showing him decked out in the apparel from a San Francisco fetish sexual shop.

According to the Post, the candidate “appeared in multiple pics for ‘Mr. S Leather,’ a San Francisco-based purveyor of leather-daddy supplies, wearing collars, leather straps, neoprene, bondage gear, and more.”

The images are no longer on the store’s website, with the Post reporting that they are “still accessible in internet archives, which show they were online between 2011 and 2020.”

“I mean, all my friends know I’m kinky,” the 37-year-old Democrat told The New York Times in an interview. “I make Christian Grey look like amateur hour.”

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“The images were taken for the company’s website in early 2010 when Gallant wasn’t yet 21. One shows him in a cage, wearing a harness and a muzzle, with another man behind him performing a sex act on him,” according to the Times. “A second image had him above the same man, again in leather, this time receiving oral sex.”

The homosexual military pilot and union leader shrugged off being outed as a bondage freak.

“I just thought, ‘If my family can accept me, the world can,’ and that’s how I lived my entire life,” he told the New York Times.

“The photographs are authentic and were taken during a private, consensual photo session involving Chris and his then-partner, with whom he was in a committed four-year relationship,” Gallant’s attorney Sara Azari told the New York Post.

“Chris was also friends with the owner of Mr. S Leather, and the shoot was intended to be fun and personal, with the understanding that Mr. S could use select images in connection with certain products,” she added.

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“I’m gay and had to hide who I was by law,” Gallant said in a post to Facebook.

Rather than let the opposition define him by the old pics, the Democrat instead decided to flip the script to his advantage by making it into his “Kim Kardashian moment,” according to the Times.

“Less than 48 hours after the Post story, he uploaded a video of himself to Facebook, speaking into the camera and calling the photo release a ‘coordinated political hit meant to drive me out of this race,’” the paper reported. “Then, his social media team posted a new ad of him in a tight black T-shirt that showed off his Marvel-worthy biceps. The slogan running across it read, ‘Make Politics Sexy Again.’”

Gallant’s website features a list of prominent endorsements, including from former Biden administration transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, who says that he will “bring integrity back to Washington.”

Whether the strategy will work will be revealed on Nov. 3.

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Chris Donaldson
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