Could we be kind to Noem's husband?

[KT2000]

This is not about politics. Kristi is fair game as she is a politician. Her husband is not. This man is being publicly humiliated because of his private behavior - not political behavior. This is not the age of the Scarlet Letter. Let's let him be. So many in the country are enjoying his pain right now and we are not sure if it may have dire consequences for this man.

[._.]

1. No.

He'll have to suck it up.
If he is tough enough to be married to that piece of trash he's tough enough to take a doxing.

[AncientOfDays]

2. She had to know

She had to know about her husband's proclivities, and still signed on to an administration that politicizes against that sort of behavior. In fact, she may have literally bought herself a place in that administration. I say she's fair game.

[Intractable]

3. "his private behavior" -- He's public-figure adjacent.

I'm sure he has benefited much from Kristi's political positions.

He put himself on internet chats showing the boobs. He forfeited his privacy at that moment.

[Shellback Squid]

4. no quarter

[J_William_Ryan]

5. "This is not about politics."

Actually it is.

It’s the hateful, bigoted, authoritarian right that’s hostile to expressions of individual liberty, seeking to compel conformity and punish dissent – by opposing the right to self-determination.

Liberals have no problem with men dressing like women and defend the individual right to do so.

In a society that celebrates diversity and inclusion – a society opposed by conservatives – this wouldn’t be an issue.

Noem and others on the fascist right have only themselves to blame.

[KT2000]

7. So we do to him what they do?

We are better than that.

[NJCher]

15. Who is this "we"

of whom you speak?

This person did what he did publicly. Not only that, but he even made references to his notorious wife. That alone is a judgment error that makes him deserving of nothing but scorn.

I'm not up for being "kind" to another moronic republican, especially one who puts balloons in his T-shirt and puckers up for the camera.

I'll save my kindness for a more deserving person or animal.

[H2O Man]

6. Does he read DU?

[KT2000]

8. Who knows

The point is about who we are.

[C Moon]

9. Yeah, I just don't see the big deal. It's his choice and it's not harmful.

[LeftInTX]

10. Hey, this is the best thing that's happened in the last month! I'm enjoying it!

Kristi Noem deserves this.

No one will remember him, but they will remember her. This is her downfall.....

She's destroyed so many lives....

I bet he's also into BDSM and other things and only acceptable images were released.

[pat_k]

11. People who have no problem with cross-dressing are shrugging.

And I don't imagine there are many people on DU that have a problem with cross-dressing.

Who is being "mean" to Byron anyway?

His cross-dressing is only "inappropriate" to the vile people with their fixed notion of "appropriate" gender roles who are hellbent on dictating what is "appropriate" or "inappropriate" to every other human on the planet.

Yeah, Kristi Noem is one of those vile people.

And apparently Byron pretended to be one of those vile people too.

It's the pretense that's the problem. For his sake, I hope he sheds that persona.

If he does, I imagine the cross-dressing community would welcome the guy.

[RockRaven]

12. No. They are married. That makes him involved w/ her decades-long political activity.

They married in 1992. She's been in political office since 2007. South Dakota is a no fault divorce state, with a 60 day period between filing and finalization. Either one of them could have split with the other at any time. They didn't. And since they are married, she is involved with him, and he reflects on her. That's just how free association and partnerships work.

We can, and should, avoid kink-shaming.
We can, and should, respect the sex workers he was interacting with as workers.

But the hypocrisy, the security risk (creating blackmail fodder because of the hypocrisy and secrecy), and their vile political positions mean that we do not have to be kind to them. Fuck them.

As for him being humiliated by this: a) some people are into that, but if he isn't then fine, moving on, and b) if he is ashamed of what he gets up to during his sexy time with other consenting adults, that is a him problem not an us problem, we aren't responsible for his hang-ups.

[poli-junkie]

13. It's the fake Christian

hypocrisy that we’re all condemning — especially from this christofascist regime!

They’re all repressed, mentally ill m’fers!

Can’t stand them

[Phoenix61]

14. Nope. I couldn't care less what he likes to dress as

I do care that he aligned himself with someone who spews hate. Maybe he should have thought about that a little harder.

[JHB]

16. No, we can't

I appreciate your appeal to better angels, but they're not here right now, the worse demons are, so the right course of action is to curbstomp them at every opportunity.

[JMCKUSICK]

17. I'm with you KT2000,

This sounds like a hatchet job on Noem. Done solely to hurt her, especially with the lewendowski rumors.

Using another person's hidden secrets to bring pain to her is out of bounds for me too.

I don't know who this man is, the fact that she's been openly treating him like a cuck with her affair and the unnecessary details of private bedrooms in jets etc...makes this even more painful to imagine.
I only wish there would be a way to force her to explain her hypocrisy and shame her.

[Billsdaughter]

18. I hope in some aspect he feels a bit

more free to be than he did yesterday.

As for her, this "scandal" is the least of her problems. And yes, the scheuden freude is delicious.