Santos must have assumed he had something to gain with every one of his bogus claims. And, I do agree that the Party probably saw him as a gay poster child, especially when he was willing to support "Don't Say Gay" legislation. His candidacy said, "See, we don't hate LGBTQ folks. We've got one right here!"

In essence, Santos was the Republicans' token gay candidate the same way Hershel Walker was its token black candidate... and, in both cases, the Party (and their primary voters) disregarded a very suspect resume in favor of demonstrating a fake posture of "acceptance and inclusion."

I've known some very conservative gay folks. I remember Phillip Seymour Hoffman's trans character in the movie Flawless, tagging them with the moniker "Banana Republicans" as a humorous dig at their frat-boy style conformity. And, as I'm sure you know, there have been a number of self-serving, self-loathing gay political figures throughout history. Roy Cohn being among the most notorious.