A panel discussion about the elections on MSNBC. Among the panelists, the regular contributor Eugene Daniels, the White House correspondent for Politico: amiable, funny, sharp, passionate — a smart, impressive black guy, with an Afro that’s clearly meant as a political statement but is, somehow, actually adorable. (He is, in appearance and demeanor and attitude, one of my “types” — though I’ve come to understand that that just means he resembles, physically and in his projection of himself, someone I once had a satisfying sexual and affectional encounter with; it’s a kind of imprinting, it’s entirely in my head and not my actions, there are no real-world consequences, but it gives me a moment of pleasure, like visiting an old friend.)
Over time I’ve listened to his reporting and opinions a lot — tv goes on while I work — and occasionally I’ve glanced at him while he was speaking, but for the first time I focused on him full-bore. Ten seconds in, I said to myself, “Wow, this guy is gay!”, and then realized I hadn’t the slightest clue why I thought this. I watched him for some time then, without catching anything I could identify as a tell. I still don’t know what I was reading, but it turns out that in addition to his other sterling qualities listed above, and in addition to his being literally a great team player (including on an NCAA Division I football team), a leader of groups, and a conspicuous role model for young black guys, he is also way gay, wonderfully, flamboyantly gay — a presentation achieved by his clothing and adornment (so it can easily be adjusted for the context; he moves through a lot of worlds).
Yes, there will be photos, in some of which ED’s attire shouts “I’m gay! Come to the cabaret, my friends!” I’ll start. however, with a PR photo of ED looking amiable but unremarkable:
(#1) Well, there is that royal blue sport coat; ED has an eye for color
Plus a boiling-down of his Wikipedia entry:
Eugene Anthony Daniels-Stephens II (born [Eugene Anthony Daniels II] February 12, 1989) is an American journalist. For Politico, he serves as a White House correspondent and author of Politco’s Playbook (a daily early-morning email newsletter). Daniels has been a MSNBC contributor since 2021. He is also the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association for July 2024 through July 2025.
… He attended Shoemaker High School in Killeen, Texas where he played football. He was then a defensive lineman at Colorado State University, where he majored in political science, later switching to journalism. Following health problems and injuries, he became a non-playing member of the team. He graduated from Colorado State in 2012.
… Daniels came out as gay in 2016. On October 29, 2022, he married Nathan Thomas Stephens in the Evergreen Museum & Library in Baltimore, Maryland.
In one of the interviews he’s given, ED says that he came out late, at the age of 27, after having lived all those years in the closet. Coming out was a huge relief for him, and he seems to have taken the occasion to play his flamboyant card. One of the wedding photos:
(#2) Eugene and Nate, absurdly happy to have been joined in wedlock; ED is playing the bride, all in white, presenting himself as thoroughly butch, while wearing the first suit with a train in my experience
ED gets away with the most amazing costumes. And nail polish. Tastefully done, as in this photo of Nate and Eugene at the Spanish Steps in the Kalorama district of Washington DC:
(#3) Note ED’s gorgeous sport coat
From the wedding story in the New York Times, by Rosalie R. Radomsky on 11/11/22 (where we learn that the couple initially connected through on-line dating sites, as people do these days):
[Mr. Stephens] grew up on a 400-acre cattle ranch in the Black Hills of South Dakota outside St. Onge … [He] runs his own consulting practice connecting organizations and communities to solve racial, social and economic problems. He graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., and received a Master of Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in Monterey, Calif.
I still have no idea what pinged my gaydar on MSNBC. But I’m pleased to get his political reporting.