Gay Dating Advice

The Perils of Dick Pics

When I was growing up, the obligatory “gotcha” question to ask any politician was: “Have you ever smoked marijuana?” Thus produced Bill Clinton’s infamous, “Yes, but I didn’t inhale,” which pretty much previewed the triangulation that defined Slick Willie’s two terms in the White House.

If it hasn’t already arrived, I think the day is soon coming when the question about weed will replaced by inquires about another rite of youthful indiscretion: “Have you ever sent nude photos of yourself over your cell phone or the internet?”

I’m guessing that such a question would disqualify 70 percent of the American population under a certain age from running for office, but I would up that figure to 98.29 percent when talking about gay men.

Crotch shots and booty pics are a fixture of gay hook-up sites, despite the objections of prudes who are offended by sexual images appearing on sexual websites. And many gay men engage in adult-only sexting as casually (yet vigorously) as they play video games.

Does this mean that the campaign for the first openly gay president will be torpedoed by jockstrap pics he took in his mother’s bathroom when he was 19? Will a gay man running for senator in 2026 be forced to explain the content of his Grndr profile?

“But everybody does it, so what’s the big deal?” some might say. Of course, many have been saying the same thing about marijuana for decades, and yet the electorate clings to taboos far longer than we might expect.

If the political standard was, “Have you ever sent a nudie out,” would you still be eligible for public office? Do you have nude pics on your online profile, or do you save them for private sexting session with certain guys? Are you among the one percent of gay guys who has never sent XXX images? Or are you the future Bill Clinton who will say, “I took nude pics, but I never sent them out”?