#TwinksForTrump Is A Real Thing
By Samuel Leighton-Dore
Just when you thought the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election couldn’t get any weirder…
Fresh off the heels of becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump is enjoying a new wave of momentum from which the world might never recover. In the meantime, however, there are some glistening nuggets of internet gold being sifted from the real-world shit.
#TwinksForTrump is one of those nuggets.
A Twitter account named Twinks For Trump is sparking sexual fandom online, praising Donald Trump for his Daddy-like qualities and fetishizing his “small, meaty hands”.
The parody account, created by Cody Permenter, aims to make the election “as gay as possible”.
But all comedy aside, the account is reflective of an emerging trend of gay Republicans and young people throwing their packages behind Trump’s campaign. Young gay men are hitching onto the hashtag, taking to Instagram and Twitter to share their fab Republican merchandise. Which isn’t funny at all.
Despite trump rallying against equality in recent months, telling old Fox News he would likely back a plot to overturn same-sex marriage, and telling evangelical leaders they can “trust” him to protect “traditional marriage”, some members of the American LGBTIQ+ community have come out in support of a Trump presidency.
One gay Trump supporter wrote recently: “Why in the world would an educated gay atheist even consider voting for Trump in the upcoming presidential election? I consider it because I want to steer the GOP away from the status quo. I want to send a clear message to Republicans that they’ve failed and they are a huge part (and really, the cause) of the problem.”
Gay AIDS activist James Driscoll has also thrown his weight behind Donald Trump for President, claiming: “He says he’s religious but he seems basically to be a secularist and he’s not an ideologue. He knows how to court the religious vote effectively but he’s not one of them.”
Gay YouTuber Kyle Kittleson joined in, explaining: “Long before Hillary Clinton supported equal marriage and gay rights, Donald Trump supported equal rights for everybody. Granted he didn’t want it to be called marriage, but he did advocate for unions with legal equal rights. I have a lot of gay friends who totally support Trump but won’t support him publicly.”
So while it’s fair game to sit back and have a chuckle at the #TwinksForTrump account (yeah, it’s fucking funny), it remains to be seen whether or not this is another terrifying case of comedy speaking for a darker truth.
