SUFFOLK COUNTY – Congressional candidate Chris Gallant (D-Amity Harbor), whose campaign has centered heavily on his record as a military pilot, air traffic controller, union leader, and firefighter, appeared years earlier in sexually explicit BDSM photographs, according to an extensive review of archived internet material conducted by The Messenger.
Coincidentally, The New York Post went live with their story just as The Messenger was about to go live with the same story. On top of the photos released by The Post, The Messenger has obtained even more graphic imagery that we have censored for our readers.
The developments raise questions not only of Gallant’s background, but also of broader Democratic strategy and candidate vetting.
The photographs, some of which date to at least 2011, show a young man who The Messenger has identified as Gallant modeling bondage and fetish equipment including collars, harnesses, and blindfolds. Other images from the same series are substantially more explicit.
The earliest photographs obtained by the newspaper date to December 2011. Another archived Mr. S Leather page shows the same man, confirmed to be Gallant, modeling a product marketed as the “Simple Posture Collar.”
The substantially more explicit images involve Gallant giving and receiving oral sex, anal sex, and using BDSM equipment, such as cages, collars, harnesses, and restraints.
Note: We have censored the images, but note they are graphic in nature.
If the photographs archived from 2011 were created around that time, Gallant, now 36, would have been in his early 20s at the time, while concurrently serving in the National Guard. His own professional history says his military service began in 2006.
Gallant’s attorney, Sara Azari, confirmed to The Messenger Gallant’s identity in the photos.
“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. Chris was also friends with the owner of Mr. S Leather, and the shoot was undertaken informally and in good faith. At the time, Chris agreed that select photographs could be used in connection with certain Mr. S products. That limited permission did not constitute authorization for unrestricted publication, distribution, or use by third parties. As Chris began considering a future in public service, he requested that the photographs no longer be used and that they be removed from the company’s website. Mr. S honored that request.”
News Tips Allege Escort Work
The Messenger has received digital and in-person tips alleging that Gallant worked as an escort in the Lindenhurst-Amityville area.
Two people separately contacted The Messenger alleging that Gallant used the name “Joe Flint” as his escort alias, which has an independently documented online history. They have identified candidate Gallant as the escort with whom they had had previous encounters.
The name Joe Flint is an online identity associated with RentMen, a male escort service profile, which was being discussed on these forums as early as August 2019, according to web archives. A forum on a separate male escort service, The Company of Men, is specifically dedicated to Flint’s services, called “411 Joe Flint.” Users say he was available on Long Island and in New York City.
Users claimed that they had met the person behind the profile, and another user said Flint’s “flakiness” in meeting up was due to Flint “working a full-time job that’s demanding and makes it tricky to schedule.”
The thread provides contemporaneous evidence that an escort using the JoeFlint name was advertising through RentMen by 2019. An archived RSS reproduction of the discussion from August 2019 also preserved the original rentmen.eu/JoeFlint link, providing an additional historical record of the profile’s existence.
Discussion of the account continued for years. Users said Flint, after a hiatus, returned to escort work in a post dated October 7, 2024. In that post, the user said “his [Flint’s] ad says he’s back for good.” Another user said on November 24, 2024, that he had been in contact with Flint, but that Flint never showed up for their meeting.
On September 12, 2026, a user posted a comment to the message board for Joe Flint, “I guess everyone knows why the profile disappeared. It’s very weird watching ads for congress [sic] now.”
Another user replied to that comment, “My… and here I thought there was transparency in politics.”
These comments establish an unusual circumstance surrounding the allegations received by the newspaper: people contacting The Messenger supplied the name “Joe Flint,” and historical Internet records independently show that a man using precisely that name maintained an escort profile associated with the area Gallant is from.
Gallant’s attorney said that before seeking public office, Gallant “worked as a bartender including at hosted themed promotional events. He unequivocally denies ever working as a male escort.”
She also stated, “Third parties have also stolen and used Chris’ photographs without his consent, impersonating him on platforms including Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. The mere appearance of his image on a website or social-media account does not establish that he created, controlled, or participated in the associated account or activity.”
Ms. Azari did not say what the “themed” promotional events constituted, or whether or not they involved nudity or sexual acts. She also did not address how Gallant’s image could have been used for years on an escort service site without being discovered during the vetting and before Gallant was a candidate and had readily-available photos.
It’s also not clear to what end Gallant was allegedly impersonated on social media and in what contexts.
According to the attorney, someone else was uploading pictures of Gallant to various sites. Left unanswered: how someone obtained photos of Gallant before he became a candidate; whether Gallant knew these photos existed on a male escort site; whether the Democratic Party knew these photos existed; and if not, why?
The campaign has not produced any evidence of his likeness being used in any other capacity.
Vetting Problems for Democrats?
These developments raise a broader question beyond Gallant himself and his campaign and its associated public image: how thoroughly was Gallant vetted before local and national Democratic leaders began elevating his candidacy?
It’s not clear if the Democratic Party intentionally overlooked Gallant’s past, and while Gallant’s and Platner’s experiences are completely separate from one another in scope, it begs the question: are Democrats properly vetting their candidates, especially those perennially competitive battleground elections?
The debacle around George Santos (R-Queens) in 2023 raised significant questions on candidate vetting. The question was raised again in 2024, when The Messenger was the first to report that then-congressional candidate John Avlon (D-Gramercy Park), who has endorsed Gallant, was living in New York City and claiming Suffolk residency through his Sag Harbor summer home.
In 2026, the question has been one of the flashpoints of the midterm campaign. In Maine, progressive oyster farmer Graham Planter (D) quickly emerged as one of the Democrats’ heavyweight Senate candidates to flip control of the chamber. His campaign biography asserted military service, working-class imagery, and outsider appeal.
However, Platner suspended his campaign in early July after a Politico report containing testimony of an ex-partner of Platner’s whom she says raped her in a drunken stupor.
The Wall Street Journal, among other outlets, have classified the national Democrats’ prerogative as attempting to reach the male voting bloc with more traditionally masculine candidates. The Journal calls this the “dude-bro candidate” – politicians with appearance around masculine presentation, defiance of conventional political behavior, and cultural authenticity.
The Journal also found that the vetting process around Platner’s background was hastily done. They reported that a strategist working Platner paid about $6,250 for an expedited background investigation that took only three days.
Earlier this year, the House saw two Democrats and one Republican resign in the same week due to personal scandals and ethics violations, although those cases are of a much different scope than Gallant’s.
Gallant is not simply a local candidate; NY-01 has been placed in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) District in Play program. They identify NY-01 was one of the key districts that they believe is consequential in determining House control.
Gallant has received endorsements from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (D-MI), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-Albany), Congressman Pat Ryan (D-Gardiner), VoteVets, and 1119SEIU.
NY-01 encompasses the entire towns of East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Smithtown, Southampton, and Southold, most of the Town of Huntington, and the northern half of the Town of Brookhaven.
