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.
The developments raise questions not only of Gallant’s background, but also of broader Democratic strategy and candidate vetting.
Note: While we have censored the photos, they remain graphic in nature.
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, identified as Gallant, modeling a product marketed as the “Simple Posture Collar.” The newspaper has compared numerous images from different angles against known photos of Gallant, focusing particularly on the shape of his ear and earlobes and a distinctive mark near the left temple. Facial structure, eye appearance, and eyebrow shapes have also been compared.
The earliest photographs obtained by the newspaper date to December 2011. Another archived Mr. S Leather page shows the same man, identified as Gallant, modeling a product marketed as the “Simple Posture Collar.” The newspaper has compared numerous images from different angles against known photos of Gallant, focusing particularly on the shape of his ear and earlobes and a distinctive mark near the left temple. Facial structure, eye appearance, and eyebrow shapes have also been compared.
The substantially more explicit images involve Gallant giving and receiving oral sex, anal sex, and using BDSM equipment, such as collars, harnesses, and restraints.
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. The images run contrast to Gallant’s campaign image, which has leaned heavily into his image as a Black Hawk pilot and FAA air traffic controller.
The Messenger has provided the less explicit images to Gallant’s campaign manager, Jasmine Singh, and has requested access to Gallant to address the photos.
The photos, however, may not be the only undisclosed aspect of his past.
News Tips Allege Escort Work
The allegations around Gallant don’t stop with his modeling days; rather, 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.
Whether Gallant was that man remains an unanswered question, as the campaign has not provided The Messenger with access to Gallant to discuss these allegations.
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?
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.
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, it begs an unmistakable question: are Democrats properly vetting their candidates, especially those running in perennially competitive battleground elections?
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.
