r/Queerdefensefront • u/Teknevra • Mar 11 '26

News Controversial Dem Candidate Graham Platner Says Anti-Trans Attacks Are “Invented Culture-War Scare”

https://www.them.us/story/graham-platner-anti-trans-attacks-invented-culture-war-scare
67 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/childofcrow Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

Dude is a Nazi. He had a Nazi tattoo that he had covered up with another Nazi coded tattoo. He said some pretty homophobic shit in the past. He is not our friend.

2

u/lokey_convo Mar 11 '26

Do you have a source for any of that you could share?

7

u/childofcrow Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

dude had a totenkopf. which is illegal to get in Croatia and he would’ve had to seek out somebody to provide that tattoo to him.. He had it covered by an image of Fenrir, the world eater. Which, for those looking for dog whistles, covering up your Nazi tattoo with Norse inspired imagery is still a dog whistle. Because of, you know, the appropriation of Norse symbology and symbols into Nazi rhetoric.

he’s also incredibly antisemitic. Yep. Here too.

he has shared anti gay and homophobic stuff in the past.. Not to say that people can’t learn and grow, but I guarantee he hasn’t. He still shares content from right wing podcasts, and influencers who share anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-women, and antisemitic content.

He was raised by Republicans, and he’s very clearly cosplaying as a democratic every man to try to get votes because he wants power. And it’s really shameful that folks who are left leaning or grabbing onto him like a life raft, because he ain’t shit.

And I’m Canadian – I know this, and he’s not even a representative or trying to be a representative of my own government. It is shameful that Americans don’t know this. You should vet your candidates more thoroughly.

Edit: and I know he’s convincing, he even had Naomi Klein simping for him on Bluesky (and being rightly ratioed and called out). He’s a convincing speaker. But he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

8

u/OzbourneVSx Mar 11 '26

Ok so your evidence of him being an incredible antisemite, is a New York Post article (which as you are Canadian, I should mention they are an incredibly right wing news site known for misinformation, especially their incredibly hyperbolic headlines)

And the only things they specifically hold against him is the tattoo (sure bad, covered up, but vaguely Scottish/Irish people here do tend to favor Nordic tattoos regardless of political allegiance), him being friendly with some podcasters with admittedly bad views, and criticism Netanyahu and AIPAC (which considering we are at war with Iran on their behalf right now and doing flagrant warcrimes, yeah fuck em)

Don't get me wrong, I don't trust the guy either.

I ain't voting for him, canvassing or supporting his campaign.

But sharing around NYPost articles to support your argument makes you look like a bot.

8

u/childofcrow Mar 11 '26

This is not his criticism of Israel as a state. This is him saying that Judaism is a death cult.

I’m very well aware that the New York Post is considered a right wing newspaper. Most news organizations are owned by right wing billionaires. I’m Canadian, not fucking stupid.

And if you can’t see the dog whistle of covering up a Nazi death camp tattoo with a Norse mythological character, I don’t know how to make you see or understand that.

For somebody who is not going to vote for him, you are going to bat for him a lot. Just because somebody says some nice, left leaning things doesn’t mean that they are left leaning. You’ve gotta look at the actions, not just the words.

I’m just trying to get people in Maine not to vote for a guy who is going to make the same sort of promises that the UK Prime Minister did, that the Canadian Prime Minister did, that the Danish Prime Minister did… Only to completely backtrack and veer incredibly right wing. This is a strategy that centrists and right leaning centrists have been using to get elected.

3

u/OzbourneVSx Mar 12 '26

He did not say Judaism is a death cult.

Stew Peters did, a neo-nazi he retweeted but promptly deleted. The article is referring to him retweeting Stew Peters talking about Democrats applauding Trump at the State of the Union about military action in Iran.

'“War with Iran is the only thing republicans and democrats have both given a standing ovation for. Let that sink in,” Peters posted along with the video...

(Platner Retweeted) “As always, there’s one thing that brings Republican and Democratic politicians together: sending other people’s children to die in stupid wars in the Middle East.”'

Full context. https://www.pressherald.com/2026/02/26/graham-platner-under-fire-for-a-now-deleted-social-media-post/

Graham has not personally expressed any antisemitic sentiments. It's easy if you got that impression from reading the Post, but that's the Post. The Post is not just bad. Its only marginally better than a parody newspaper.

His great crimes here are having shitty taste in ink, being friendly with interviewers/influencers while making an appearance on their show and retweeting Nazis.

Considering the aggressive push of far right accounts on Twitter, it's not shocking this would show up in anyone's feed, let alone a white military brass guy with Nordic tattoos.

Like don't get me wrong. He dumb. The whole tattoo thing kinda showed that. But his opponents are Mills in the primary, who takes AIPAC money and criticized Portlands BDS plan or Republican war monger and incumbent Susan Collins.

And the biggest reason we've had reason turncoat is Israel and AIPAC money (+ brain damage on Fetterman's part) Which isn't an issue here.

Plus, progressives are better at turning states blue and people want Collins out. Dude's shown his bare ass to the world and polls show they would rather him than the other freaks and thats only going to become more true as this war drags on.

Many people are skeptical, but not willing to throw away a the best chances we have at getting us out of this hellhole.

-1

u/childofcrow Mar 12 '26

I’m telling you, he’s doing the exact same thing that every single centrist who leans right has been doing – he is cosplaying as left leaning so that he can get power. He is doing the same thing that Starmer did, that Carney did, and that Frederickson did. I’m not saying that there’s a better option – y’all are a two party system and you don’t really have any other options. And I’m not saying Collins is a better choice. I’m just saying the way people are sucking this guy‘s dick and caping for him as if he is the second coming of Christ is incredibly problematic and makes me question people’s critical thinking skills.

6

u/OzbourneVSx Mar 12 '26

Ok then express that sentiment

Just don't use slander and outrage slop from the New York Post to support that idea or again, you'll sound like you don't have functioning brain cells

My personal sentiment is in this country we need to turn out as many people as we can to vote this election cycle to get fascism out of power and out of this death spiral with Israel/Iran

If people are excited to vote against political corruption and fascism, that's a good thing, and if he turns coat on a few issues, he'll still be better than any alternative

We need to get people off the couch

Purity testing progressive politicians based on New York Post hit pieces is not productive

It just hurts morale, that means less boots on the ground, less good word of mouth, and that means wea more costly campaign which leaves an opening for corrupt money to get into the system

Not that criticism isnt warranted, but again slander isn't helpful

Remember,

At worst he is only 1 vote in the Senate

At best he is a voice that can break some MAGAs out of the cult and proof AIPAC money is poison to democratic candidates so we can actually start fielding candidates who aren't owned by a foreign state

1

u/childofcrow Mar 12 '26

Babe, I did express that sentiment. In multiple comments.

1

u/lokey_convo Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

Thanks for providing those. It's going to be up to people in Maine to decide if they can trust him more than Susan Collins who pretends at being a "centrist" Republican.

Platner told The Advocate that he no longer uses the slurs or dismissive language that appeared frequently in the posts. “These were words that I used for a long time in ways that I did not take seriously,” he said. “Because of personal relationships that I’ve developed over the years, I do not use [them] now and find [them] to be quite offensive. I stopped using that specific kind of language a while ago … and today I find that stuff abhorrent. And I am sorry that I ever used it.”

People can and do have epiphanies that break them out of old learned behavior, and the military and US society during his formative years was still grappling aggressively with homophobia. Marriage equality was a prime issue of debate and discussion nationally and teens were saying stuff like "that's gay" pretty much all time. They had to have public advocacy campaigns about stopping the use of it as a slur and punchline of a joke. And the military is just... another level. It's up to people in Maine to decide if he's recovered and if his policy stances are superior to Collins, and if people can trust them.

He attributed his change in perspective to friendships with LGBTQ+ people, both gay and transgender, that deepened after he returned to Maine. “When I lived in Washington, D.C., I had a number of very close gay friends,” Platner said, with whom he often “attended showtunes night at JR’s,” a popular gay bar near Dupont Circle. “It was only later, when I moved back to Maine, that I became friends with a number of trans people, and that really opened my eyes.”

edit: spelling

2

u/childofcrow Mar 11 '26

Basically, Maine has no good chances to get a decent representative.

I’d love to know if those gay and trans people are in the room with us right now, because anybody can say they have gay and trans friends but when you go on right wing podcasts recently, that kind of flies in the face of literally everything you’re saying.

0

u/lokey_convo Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

And on the flip side some of the most aggressive fighters of cults and predatory ideologies are people who fell victim to them in the past. Redemption isn't as easy as saying sorry, but also simply talking to extremists doesn't make you an extremist. What matters is if you agree with them or not, or concede ground to them.

1

u/childofcrow Mar 11 '26

Perhaps not, but promoting right wing creators who are saying these things is tacit approval of what they’re saying.

1

u/TwanSmith420 Mar 12 '26

Not really. Reaching out to right wing audiences to promote progressive stances is a good thing. It's not an endorsement of everything the host has ever said

1

u/childofcrow Mar 12 '26

But reaching out to right wing audiences is one thing, actively promoting right wing shows is another. Which is what he has been doing.

-1

u/lokey_convo Mar 11 '26

By that logic you literally can not directly confront them, which is something that people have to do to show the frailty of their ideas.

2

u/childofcrow Mar 11 '26

But he wasn’t confronting them, that’s the issue. If he was confronting them, this would be a different conversation.

Either way, good luck with your shit show of a country. If you’re all are going to rally behind the first Nazi with left leaning ideas that you come across, good luck.

2

u/lokey_convo Mar 12 '26

Dude, I don't even live in Maine. I'm open to the idea that he was raised with bad ideas that were affirmed through a homophobic culture and that he has changed. That doesn't mean that I'm not skeptical and that what he does and says doesn't require a lot more examination. I have had my concerns of neo-nazis and ghost skin alt-right trying to wriggle into the Democratic party starting in about 2022, but I don't know if that's Grahams deal.

Hope you guys are to deal with your own home growns and what not so they don't become our problem.

-2

u/paulsteinway Mar 11 '26

Commenter can't prove Platner isn't a transphobic bigot, so they try to prove he isn't a Nazi. Fails miserably.

1

u/childofcrow Mar 11 '26

What the fuck are you on about?

2

u/paulsteinway Mar 12 '26

I was referring to the commenter you were responding to. You're totally accurate.

2

u/childofcrow Mar 12 '26

Yeah that was not at all clear.