Photos of Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Democrat President Joe Biden’s White House deputy coordinator for combatting monkeypox, went viral Wednesday afternoon following remarks that he delivered about the virus.
Daskalakis, who was named to the position after serving as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) director of HIV prevention, said that the virus “transmits through very close skin to skin physical contact, often in the setting of sexual exposure, but there are other mechanisms for its transmission, including if you touch objects of individuals who’ve had monkey pox touch or if, if you have prolonged exposure to respiratory droplets.”
Daskalakis then appeared to suggest that there are “men who have sex with men” who are not gay and who are not transgender.
“With that said, signaling to people who are in the gay, bisexual, other men who have sex with men communities, and also transgender people who have sex with men, that it’s really important to have awareness, that it’s circulating in the community is really a critical part of the messaging while not generating inordinate concern and really focusing on the infection as linked to an identity,” he said. “So it’s just an infection that’s not linked to an identity. It just happens to be in the social network.”
Journalist Tom Elliott then posted a thread of photos on Twitter showing Daskalakis wearing raunchy outfits, some of which appeared to be in settings for photo shoots.
Picture I found when googling him pic.twitter.com/SG8YUWaPh5
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 7, 2022
2) Nothing screams "expert coming through!" like a black leather biker hat w/ matching leather chest straps. Shirts are overrated anyway. pic.twitter.com/Yiyw0Jbliu
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 7, 2022
This comes after the Biden administration hired Sam Brinton, who dresses in drag, at the Department of Energy.
Brinton, deputy assistant secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy, has courted controversy with his open advocacy of sexual fetishism and “puppy play,” a sexual “kink” involving role-playing as animals. The newly resurfaced, seven-year-old essay he wrote for The Advocate, in which he defended Rentboy.com, and which was first reported by The National Pulse, is likely to raise more eyebrows.
“Rentboy.com may or may not have broken the law,” Brinton wrote. “I don’t know. But I do know, from the frantic emails filling my inbox, that the raid on its headquarters has thrown many gay, bisexual, and transgender young adults into turmoil as their main source of income has been ripped away due to irresponsible and archaic views of sex work.”
The column ran shortly after federal prosecutors charged Rentboy.com CEO Jeffrey Hurant and six Rentboy.com employees with conspiring to violate the Travel Act by promoting prostitution. The site advertised male escort services, but federal prosecutors said at the time it was “designed primarily for advertising illegal prostitution.”
The Department of Energy’s new hire Sam Brinton making everyone feel extremely comfortable always pic.twitter.com/QRMHmNBc03
— Mandy Stadtmiller (@mandystadt) February 11, 2022
Sam Brinton, Biden Dept. of Energy hire is a nonbinary drag queen — 'an asset,' say queer activists pic.twitter.com/tMM5esLiWu
— Willie Colón (@williecolon) August 15, 2022
You go back in time and have to explain this picture to someone from 2005. How do you explain what’s going on and how we got here? pic.twitter.com/aG9gKib85O
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) July 15, 2022
Hank Berrien contributed to this report.