The internet is having a field day!
News broke on March 31 that fired former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s husband has allegedly been leading a secret double life as a crossdresser.
The Daily Mail reported that it had uncovered "pouting ‘busty bimbo’ photos" of Bryon Noem wearing a makeshift breastplate and a "trove of explicit messages" linked to a fetish community.
People online were quick to point to Noem's hypocrisy in asking for "privacy and prayers at the time," in a statement shared with The New York Post, considering her history of vocally supporting a political party that is constantly inserting itself into the private lives of the LGBTQ+ community.
Noem has also built a career on supporting policies restricting LGBTQ+ rights, and while governor of South Dakota, she signed the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act," which would have granted the state "a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people," HRC reported. She also approved a ban on transgender girls participating in women's sports, and supported gender affirming care restrictions.
Gay D.C. staffer Josh Sorbe, who attended the University of South Dakota, summed up Noem’s hypocrisy perfectly in an Instagram Reel he posted yesterday after the cross-dressing news broke.
"They will do horrible things to queer people in public," he said in the video. "They will ban their books, they will ban their healthcare, they will ban their expression, they will ban their drag shows, and then turn around and queen out and do gay sh*t behind the scenes all the time. That’s where I draw the line. Be whoever the hell you want to be because your business is your business, but the second that your business involves insecurity or hypocrisy and you decide to make that my business — no, no, no."
As long as everyone is consenting, what someone does in their private life is no one else’s business, a fact that Republicans — and Noem herself — frequently forget when they insert themselves into queer people’s private lives and relationships.
This year alone, hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced across the country, and in just the last few weeks, states have passed anti-trans bathroom bills and destroyed rainbow sidewalks.
This hypocrisy is nothing new, but this particular bombshell set off the internet, which seems to have banded together to roast Noem in the funniest ways possible. We could all use a little catharsis right now, so keep scrolling for the best memes and jokes social media has to offer!
