Markets 
This New York pol has a secret BDSM past.
Chris Gallant, 37, the Democratic nominee running against Long Island Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) was previously involved in a very different kind of campaign: selling toys as a model for a fetish sex shop, The Post can reveal.
Gallant appeared in multiple pics for “Mr. S Leather,” a San Francisco-based purveyor of leather-daddy supplies, wearing collars, leather straps, neoprene, bondage gear, and more.
These images of Gallant are no longer on the store’s site, but are still accessible in internet archives, which show they were online between 2011 and 2020.
“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,” Gallant’s Los Angeles and New York-based attorney Sara Azari told The Post.
“Chris was also friends with the owner of Mr. S Leather, and the shoot was intended to be fun and personal, with the understanding that Mr. S could use select images in connection with certain products,” she added.
Azari is a nationally known, high-powered attorney who deals with a lot of reputation and sexual misconduct cases, having represented disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)
“As Chris began considering a future in public service, he asked that the photographs no longer be used and that they be removed from the company’s website. Mr. S honored his request,” she continued.
Other images of Gallant in Mr. S Leather gear appear to have shown up on gay porn sites that do not appear to be affiliated with “Mr. S Leather.” But Azari explained that Gallant’s limited understanding with “Mr. S Leather” was “never intended to authorize unrestricted publication” by third parties.
Facial recognition software matched the racy images — some of which depict hardcore sex — to Gallant.
The images also show an identical blemish on his left temple and his distinctive earlobe shape.
A photo of a much younger Gallant during a 2007 appearance at a Fire Island LGBTQ festival shows him sporting a similar close-cropped haircut to those modeled in the fetish pics.
Some of the snaps depicted him in hardcore pornographic poses, including fully naked and having sex with another man.
Gallant posed with muzzles and blindfolds during the shagging. There’s even a picture of him smiling in a cage.
Gallant, a Black Hawk helicopter pilot, has served in the Army National Guard since 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile — likely during the time he posed for the XXX-rated images.
He also serves as a volunteer firefighter and previously worked as a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic controller, where he had been a local union chapter leader in the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).
A separate, though less erotic photo of Gallant at an “Invasion of the Pines” event, an annual LGBTQ tradition, in 2007 is available on Getty Images. His attorney confirmed it was captured years before the “Mr. S Leather” photos.
“He will not allow photographs from a past relationship or employment to be distorted and weaponized for political purposes or used to distract voters from the issues that matter,” Azari stressed.
“These photographs have no bearing on Chris’s record, qualifications, judgment, or ability to serve,” Azari went on. “He remains fully committed to his campaign and to earning the trust of the people he seeks to represent.”
Gallant’s race against LaLota in New York’s 1st Congressional District is ranked “solid” Republican by the Cook Political Report.
LaLota, a US Navy veteran, has held the seat since 2022, when he won the race to succeed now-EPA Commissioner Lee Zeldin.
Gallant beat off opposition from 25-year-old NYU grad Lukas Ventouras in the June Democratic primary after Ventouras was caught liking antisemitic memes and posts online.
The most recent instance of his apparent X-rated modeling being used to tout a sex toy appears to have been around 2020, based on data from the Wayback Machine, where he was shown in an image marketing the “Simple Posture Collar” for $89.95.
The Post contacted “Mr. S Leather” for comment.
Read the full article here
