On the gay internet, the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham was met with a smirk. Memes and posts suggested that the longtime South Carolina lawmaker, who unexpectedly died on Saturday, was gazing on a Provincetown cruising spot from the afterlife, flamboyantly courting Ronald Reagan’s attention in hell, and being honored at Grindr headquarters with a flag flown at half-staff. Though Graham maintained throughout his life that he was not gay, his sexuality was an open question in Washington. It’s not just that he had what some deemed an effeminate air and was never romantically linked with a woman, though that certainly fed the rumors. There were also multiple public accounts from men who said Graham had paid them for sex, claims he also denied. Still, nothing ever erupted into a full-blown scandal. And until his death, Graham remained a staunch opponent of LGBTQ+ rights. This apparent hypocrisy made Graham a ripe subject of debate on the ethics of outing anti-gay public figures. One line of thinking holds that everyone has a right to sexual privacy so long as all participants are adult and consenting. Others believe that political officials who enjoy a private gay life while working to enshrine LGBTQ+ people as second-class citizens deserve no privilege of discretion. Graham’s alleged homosexuality was wielded as a weapon by both Republican…
Published: July 14, 2026 5:10 pm
Source: Slate Magazine — Read original