the ny-1 democrat modeled for a leather shop, and the only person who seems upset is the guy who leaked it

via the Advocate, PinkNews, the Washington Sun and Just the News, after the New York Post's Sunday scoop.

A leather posture collar is a specific object. It is not a metaphor and it is not a euphemism, it is a piece of stiff shaped leather that holds your chin up, and it photographs beautifully, which is presumably why a shop bought the picture.

The man wearing it in the photograph flies a Black Hawk.

what the pictures are

Chris Gallant, 37, is the Democratic nominee in New York's first congressional district, the eastern end of Long Island, running to take the seat off Republican Nick LaLota. He has been in the Army National Guard since 2006. He has also been an air traffic controller, a union leader and a volunteer firefighter, which is about four more biographies than the average House candidate manages.

On Sunday the New York Post published archived advertising images of him in leather collars and harnesses, shot for Mr. S Leather, the oldest fetish retailer still operating in San Francisco. The Washington Sun reports the ads circulated until 2020. The New York Times followed on Monday. By Monday afternoon it was a national story, mostly because a great many people on the internet looked at it and could not locate the scandal.

yeah, that's me

Gallant did not do the thing candidates do. There was no unfortunate-lapse statement, no youthful-indiscretion language, nobody blamed a staffer. He emailed his supporters. Newsday obtained the message on Monday, and the Newsday reporter Billy House, who covers Washington for the paper, reported that it opened with three words: "Yeah, that's me."

He said he is not embarrassed or ashamed. "I have always been unapologetically me," he wrote. "These attacks on my identity have just made me stronger in my values and convictions." He called the leak a homophobic attack from his opponent, and said he would not let it distract voters from affordability and health care. LaLota's office did not immediately respond to that.

His attorney, Sara Azari, confirmed the images to the Post and drew the line exactly where it belongs. "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," she said. "These photographs have no bearing on Chris's record, qualifications, judgment, or ability to serve." When he started thinking about public service, she said, he asked Mr. S to stop using them, and the shop did.

documented proof of a six-pack

Rich Schaffer, the Suffolk County Democratic chair, gave the response of the week. Whatever Republican political hack sent the photos around, he told House, it only shows LaLota is frightened, because Gallant talks about affordability and health care and "most of Nick LaLota's posts are about pizza." Then: "There is now documented proof that Chris Gallant has a six-pack."

It is worth sitting with how this landed, because a decade ago it would have landed differently. The pictures are of a consenting adult, taken with his boyfriend of four years, for a licensed business in San Francisco, and the shop took them down years ago when he asked. The people circulating them assumed the pictures were the argument. They were not. Compare the Ohio operative who actually did lose his job over a photograph this month, and note what was in that one.

Gallant is still running. The district is still competitive. Somewhere in San Francisco a leather shop is having the press week of its life.