Report: George Santos, Supporter of Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws, Participated in Drag Shows and Went by the Name “Kitara” in Brazil

For over a month now, we’ve been treated to a torrent of evidence that newly elected congressman George Santos is a serial liar. From supposedly being a star volleyball player at a college he never attended to having grandparents who fled Hitler, almost every day has brought a new lie. And now, we can add flagrant hypocrisy to the mix.

On Wednesday, journalist Marisa Kabas reported that as a teen living in Brazil, Santos “enjoyed” drag, participated in at least one drag show, and went by the name “Kitara Ravache.”

Unlike Santos’s very large dossier of lies, there is absolutely nothing wrong with dressing in drag or expressing oneself however one sees fit. The problem, of course, is that Santos apparently does not think other people should be afforded such rights. As The New York Times notes, Santos has “embraced right-wing policies that many LGBTQ activists have decried as discriminatory.” For example, Florida’s bigoted “Don’t Say Gay” law, which the then candidate “voiced support for” in an April 2022 Facebook video, saying, “Hey, everyone. George Santos here…. As a gay man, I stand proudly behind not teaching our children sex or sexual orientation.” (The law prohibits teachers in grades K–3 from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation in any way whatsoever, and has led to educators being warned to not to wear clothing with rainbows on them and to get rid of “safe space” stickers and photos of their same-sex spouses out of fear of being prosecuted.) In the accompanying caption, Santos claimed Democrats want to “groom our kids.”

In his first weeks in Congress, Santos has also aligned himself with the far right, whose members have demonized drag shows and introduced appalling anti-trans legislation.

Prior to being elected, Santos worked as a spokesman for Carl Paladino, an elected official who, per the Times, has “a track record of racist and homophobic comments.”