Photos of U.S. Senator JD Vance allegedly dressed in drag have resurfaced, leading to widespread criticism and accusations of hypocrisy.
The images, reportedly from his time at Yale Law School in 2012 when Vance was 28 years old, depict him wearing a blonde wig, a shirt, and a skirt.
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The controversy began when Matt Bernstein, a user on X (formerly known as Twitter), posted one of the photos with the caption: “new: i have obtained a photo of jd vance in drag while at yale law school.”
The source of the photo was later revealed to be Travis Whitfill, an assistant professor at Yale. Whitfill confirmed his involvement, saying: “Hi Matt, I was the source of the photo (sent through friends to you). This was taken in 2012 (the same time I was at Yale 🥴). Photo was taken by a classmate and sent to me. Thanks for sharing 😘.”
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Whitfill elaborated that the photo was from a group chat of Vance’s classmates and likely originated from Facebook. It was taken at a Halloween party.
new: i have obtained a photo of jd vance in drag while at yale law school pic.twitter.com/jYf14Lwa4D
— matt (@mattxiv) August 11, 2024
A few days after the initial post, Bernstein shared a second image, captioning it, “a second photo has hit my inbox.”
“The guy went to a costume party, put on a freaking cheap wig from Party City or something similar,” Santos said. “To call that drag is disingenuous, and I think most dudes at some point in their lives have played around with costumes that are gender-bender.”
However, critics of Vance were quick to clarify that their issue wasn’t with the act of dressing in drag itself but with the senator’s perceived hypocrisy. “Don’t call JD Vance weird because he wore drag. Call him a hypocrite and a bigot for demonizing others who wear drag,” one user posted on X.
Don’t call JD Vance weird because he wore drag.
Call him a hypocrite and a bigot for demonizing others who wear drag.
— Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) August 11, 2024
Another echoed this sentiment, tweeting: “I don’t share this to shame those who do drag, but rather to shame those who attack drag while having a history of enjoying the art form themselves.”
What do you think of these resurfaced photos? Let us know your thoughts!
