The photograph from the Scranton City Hall steps should have remained a simple testament to community. It captured Frank Carey—known to many as his family-friendly drag persona, Lady Lydia—singing “Rainbow Connection” at a 2025 Pride flag-raising, with Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti smiling nearby. A local moment of civic celebration. But in the razor-wire arena of Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District race, nothing is just a moment. This image was sliced from its context and grafted onto a starkly different narrative, becoming the visual core of a political attack ad.
The ad, paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee and authorized by the campaign of Republican incumbent Rep. Rob Bresnahan, employs the picture as a narrator claims Cognetti, the Democratic challenger, aligns with “the radical group trying to force grown men in girls’ bathrooms and women’s sports.” For Frank Carey, watching his own face become a weapon in a fight he never enlisted in has been a surreal and violating experience. “They are making me out as a trans woman, and I am not,” Carey told local reporters, drawing a clear line often blurred in political rhetoric. “I know and support trans people, but drag performance and trans identity are separate things.”
This distinction is not a minor detail; it is the entire foundation of the ad’s implied argument. By conflating a drag performer with the specter of a predatory “man in a women’s bathroom,” the ad engages in a familiar and damaging political tactic. It uses a caricature to stoke fear, bypassing policy debate for cultural panic. The NRCC’s response, offered by spokesperson Reilly Richardson via email, doubled down by questioning why Cognetti “chose to appear with someone who refers to themselves as ‘Chlamydia Berns’ at an event with small children present.” This retort deliberately conflates Carey’s less-frequent, adult-oriented satirical persona with the “family-friendly” Lady Lydia character he was embodying at the public, all-ages city event—a fact verified by local news coverage showing children in attendance.
| Point | Description |
|---|---|
| Identity | Frank Carey identifies as a drag performer, separate from trans identity. |
| Community Support | A GoFundMe campaign raised over $2,000 for Carey. |
| Political Tactics | The ad uses fear tactics rather than policy discussion. |
| Misrepresentation | Carey feels his likeness was used without consent. |
| Campaign Silence | Bresnahan and Cognetti campaigns did not comment on the controversy. |
| Cultural Impact | The incident reflects broader national political strategies. |
The fallout has thrust Carey into an unwanted legal battle. His primary grievance is one of misrepresentation and consent. “The ad misrepresents me,” he stated plainly. He supports Cognetti but never sought a role in her campaign. His presence was as a local performer, not a political prop.
Both the Bresnahan and Cognetti campaigns did not immediately return requests for comment on the controversy, leaving the NRCC’s statement as the official posture of the Republican effort. This silence is telling. It allows the ad’s imagery to do its work without the clutter of direct engagement from the candidate, a buffer common in modern, heavily outsourced campaigning.
This incident in the 8th District—encompassing Lackawanna, Wayne, and Pike counties and parts of Luzerne and Monroe—is a microcosm of a national political strategy. It reduces complex human beings to political ciphers and complex issues to frightening slogans. For Carey, it has meant explaining his own identity under a glaring public spotlight. For voters, it replaces a debate on economic policy, healthcare or infrastructure with a manufactured cultural crisis. The photograph on the steps of city hall was a snapshot of a community embracing its own. In the ad, it became a battlefield. The real casualty may be the very idea that a public figure, or any citizen, can appear at a civic event without fear of becoming a weaponized image in a war they never chose to fight.
