Tipsheet

Meet Biden's New Monkeypox Expert

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  September 28, 2022 4:30 PM

Last month, President Joe Biden named Dr. Demetre Daskalakis as the White House's national monkeypox response deputy coordinator, tapping the public health expert to lead the Biden administration's strategy and operations on combatting the monkeypox outbreak. Speaking of infectious diseases, Biden's shameless COVID-19 sophist Dr. Anthony Fauci, who will soon be dethroned in December, praised Daskalakis's "extensive experience and leadership" when it comes to overseeing HIV policy. In fact, Daskalakis, also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s director of its HIV-prevention division, is widely recognized for his expertise and advocacy on health issues affecting the LGBT community—and, well, he is quite the expert.

(Keep on scrolling to see Daskalakis sporting symbols of Satanism and selling Satanic merchandise.)

While he seeks to "dismantle stigma" impacting HIV-positive patients, over the course of his career, Daskalakis has deployed some unorthodox tactics to serve the LGBT demographic. For instance, the physician now in the Biden White House used to hold nighttime office hours at after-hours sex clubs during the HIV and meningitis outbreaks in New York City, a recurring epicenter for sexually transmitted infections. (Prior to the White House gig, Daskalakis oversaw the management of infectious diseases for the de Blasio administration's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and served as incident commander for the city's COVID-19 response.)

The self-described "gay health warrior" brought HIV counseling to Manhattan's gay nightlife, spending his nights patrolling Paddles, an S&M (sadism and masochism) club lined with shackles where men checked coats and clothing at the door to wade through a nude crowd in search of a tryst, according to a a 2014 interview with The Atlantic. A steady stream of men stripped down to their boxer briefs were queued up for "Dr. Demetre," per a New York Times feature story on Daskalakis as he first embarked on his inoculation mission.

(After he took over the city's HIV-Aids bureau, Daskalakis ramped up his activist bent while in office, changing his title to "queer health warrior" to "encompass sexual and gender identities beyond gay," The Guardian reported, and encapsulate the work he's done in the transgender and "gender-nonconforming space.")

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Every half-hour or so, the owner of the popular gay hookup scene made a public service announcement to see Daskalakis, stationed at a folding table between video screens showing continuous reels of gay pornography. 

Biden's pick operated a clinic out of a makeshift office space where men were in line for free HIV, Hepatitis C, and meningitis screenings, waiting for late-night services from Daskalakis, "a familiar face in sex clubs across the city." On one occasion, Daskalakis recalled reaching for a syringe, "only to be restrained by fuzzy novelty handcuffs and a smiling naked man." The Atlantic wrote: "It's hard to imagine Dr. Demetre anywhere else."

Daskalakis is "generally unfazed by such displays of fetishistic sexuality," The Atlantic article said of Biden's monkeypox spox. "But just because he sets up shop in commercial sex venues does not mean that he condones those sexual habits." Daskalakis maintained that he doesn't "love high-risk sexual behavior" but acknowledged that it exists, emphasizing it's important as a sexual health expert to "not be scared of it."

"It's in my dharma," the middle-aged Daskalakis said of working inside sex-centered cabarets.

During the Big Apple's bacterial meningitis scare, Daskalakis carried out a personal vaccination campaign in gay bars citywide, providing free jabs at bathhouses and private parties, reported The New York Times. Daskalakis, who occasionally dressed in drag as a nurse "to take the edge off the injection" as he administered vaccines, jokingly told The Atlantic that he learned his "bedside manner from East Village drag queens."

One provocative photograph of Daskalakis taken at an AIDS charity event shows the gay activist fitted in a brassy red wig with his husband, Michael Macneal, as they flip their middle fingers to the camera. "HIV is a risqué disease and I don't really apologize for my lifestyle," Daskalakis told The New York Times, which penned a plethora of positive press in the 2010s about his midnight escapades taking HIV treatment to the streets.

Macneal helped out Daskalakis on the job, sorting through piles of paperwork and standing guard as the muscle outside his partner's private medical consultations. Today, Daskalakis's husband is a nightlife producer for Wolfpup: Jockstrap clothing-optional queer clubbing events on gaycation hotspot Fire Island where revelers can engage in puppy play on stage. A photo from 2019 shows Daskalakis sticking his tongue out while being straddled by a stripper in a dog costume. As Daskalakis enjoys the lap dance with his hands hovering over a male exotic dancer's bare cheeks, dollar bills tucked into the performer's waistband poke out near his crotch.

In another 2019 photo, Daskalakis and Macneal wear nothing but striped jockstraps and elbow-length gloves.

Macneal also designs made-to-order chain harnesses and chokers on commission. One of Macneal's latest handmade creations, a stainless-steel chain jockstrap, is priced at $200 on e-commerce platform Depop.

Daskalakis was the muse of "Queer erotica"-inspired artist Zach Grear, who specializes in creating "vintage gay porn magazines that he used to shoplift as a teen." (Grear's originals selling for $500 each are straight-up smut material where enthusiasts can gaze upon exposed anuses and erect penises.) Influenced by tattoo iconography, Grear's artwork includes altered portraits of his personal heroes, such as Daskalakis.

In one particularly provocative piece, an illustration of Daskalakis lays over an anonymous shirtless man touching himself on the phone. Text reading "LEATHER, JOCKS, TOPS, MILITARY, BOTTOMS, BISEXUAL, DADDYS, BOY NEXT DOOR" and "HOT, GAY, ACTION! The way you like it!" are written next to Daskalakis's head. Beneath his gouged-out eyes is a face tattoo, "SUFFOCATION," that Grear drew on. Dial-bait phrases like "TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO! I'LL DO IT WITH YOU!" and "GUYS ARE WAITING!" litter Gear's collage of Daskalakis along with an array of fictitious numbers for phone sex and male prostitutes. 

Grear's artwork was used in a Wolfpup ad to promote Daskalakis's birthday celebration in 2018 with "gogo pups." In an Instagram post thanking Grear for the erotic tribute, Daskalakis wrote "this is beautiful!!"

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the tatted virus expert offered New Yorkers "group-sex advice to battle COVID-19." The "leather-favoring" city employee became "a Nasty Pig hero" in April 2020 for having "took it upon himself to make sure that NYC was the first to give official advice about sexual contact [...] he's also hot af!" (Nasty Pig is a gay-owned sportswear manufacturer "that makes hot clothes that get you laid.")

Daskalakis made news with the release of the city's updated guidelines on "safer sex" in the era of COVID-19, which discussed the potential risk of spreading the virus through oral contact with feces "such as rimming."

As the city grappled with COVID-19, Daskalakis convened webinars of sex workers and issued guidance on "everything from anilingus [sexual stimulation of the anus by the tongue or mouth] to proper testing protocols."

The advisory instructed city dwellers to follow COVID-19 precautions if they attended sex parties, wear a face mask during sexual intercourse, and "masturbate together" while social distancing. "Make it kinky," the guidelines suggested. "Be creative with sexual positions and physical barriers that allow sexual contact while preventing close face-to-face contact." In a conversation with The Cut, Daskalakis was teased about how it was the first time that "glory holes have been recommended, however implicitly, by a city health agency."

When questioned if the update was "a concession to reality—that perpetual isolation isn't realistic," Daskalakis firmly stated that officials have "shifted the entire dialogue around sexual health to making sure we support a pleasurable life, rather than create an impossible standard of abstinence. So it's not really a departure."

Daskalakis told CBC's podcast The Dose that "an abstinence-based model tends to be very unsuccessful in the long term" for preventing "not just" COVID-19, but also HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

At a Sept. 7 White House press conference, when asked about monkeypox-transmissibility misperceptions, Daskalakis described the viral disease as "just an infection" that is "not linked to an identity" and "just happens to be in the social network." (Gay men account for 98% of reported monkeypox cases.) The first step to avoid anti-LGBT stigmatization reminiscent of the AIDS epidemic is to ensure "we're modeling" the "right," "excellent behavior," Daskalakis urged, stating it's "all of our responsibility" in government to act as "role model[s]."

Similar to HIV, those most at risk of contracting monkeypox are men who regularly hook up with other men at super-spreader events like commercial sex venues and booze-filled soirees that devolve into one-night stands.

The Washington Post reported that when it comes to monkeypox, Daskalakis changed his tune at an August meeting of HIV organizations, advising that "it's a good plan" to consider limiting partners, but underscoring, however: "This is not a forever thing; it's a for-now thing" until vaccinations are more widely available.

Daskalakis has been lauded by The Advocate, an LGBT-interest magazine that published a concerning op-ed from another one of Biden's top hires holding a high-level position in the administration: the U.S. Department of Energy's Sam Brinton in the Office of Nuclear Energy. (Brinton, a cross-dressing "puppy play handler" who's "gender-fluid" and uses "they/them/theirs" pronouns, defended gay prostitution website "Rentboy.com" which was raided by the feds and accused of connecting older gay men with underage boys for sex work.)

As one of The Advocate's People of the Year in 2021, he also garnered the acclaim of its sister outlet Out, a gay lifestyle magazine with the highest circulation of any LGBTQ monthly publication in America, which ran a rather rapturous profile on the Ivy League scholar. Outside of his career and professional accomplishments, Daskalakis is "not scared of showing some skin and sharing the occasional thirst traps." The outlet published a colorful spread demonstrating just that, composed of Daskalakis's half-naked mirror selfies (out of hundreds, maybe 1,000 on hand) juxtaposed with his LinkedIn-worthy amateur photoshoots in the medical clinic.

By day, Daskalakis is just your typical "progressive, radical gay doctor," a reputation the clinician earned early on when it was bestowed upon him by the head of a prominent HIV-AIDS organization. Daskalakis is often pictured in traditional physician's attire that patients would spot at a primary care office. In one PG photo from his now-private Instagram account, a lanyard featuring the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's coat of arms (a nod to where Daskalakis received his master's degree) and a classic Littmann stethoscope are draped over his neck while his square spectacles—the same studious glasses he has worn from the White House podium at monkeypox-related press briefings in recent weeks—poke over his blue surgical face mask.

In his spare time, Daskalakis, M.D., looks like he'd be strip teasing on a Pride parade float in downtown San Francisco. From business casual to scantily dressed, one eyebrow-raising picture of Daskalakis shows chains wrapped around his pelvis, which is seen thinly covered by the world's tightest navy briefs that are working overtime to separate us from the Dr.'s caduceus. A pentagram, the foremost symbol of Satanism, is inked on the medical professional's pectorals above a massive abdomen tattoo of an open-palmed Jesus Christ. "I have learned that there is light even in the darkest places" is written on a banner placed over the pentagram.

As it turns out, the breast ink is not the only Satanic imagery Daskalakis has proudly flaunted on his bare chest in full public view. The well-known "activist physician," dubbed "Biden's New Weapon Against HIV" and "The CDC's Unconventional New HIV Czar," is featured on the front cover of HIV Plus Magazine's spring 2021 edition, wearing some kind of suggestive cosplay that could've been donned by a Magic Mike XXL cast member. A black chauffeur's hat is clenched at his hip while a serious Daskalakis strikes a dominant pose in a pinstripe suit. (The full-body glamor shot is meant to encapsulate his double life as a specialist in preventing HIV transmission as well as a sex-positive LGBT sensation, but instead of modern-day Clark Kenting, it comes off as Daskalakis roleplaying in a discount Johnny Sins getup while earning crumpled singles on the side.)  

NYC Pride used the cover star's photo to announce that Daskalakis was a grand marshal for its 2021 parade.

But the most alarming article of clothing is the leather-bound pentagram across Daskalakis's torso. His expensive $375 custom-order harness, "a design that is sure to get you noticed," is reversible, too! The pentagram can be worn both front and back, according to the "post-fetish" luxury brand Zana Bayne, which is considered "a high-end take on S&M." Daskalakis has, indeed, reversed the "fetish fashion" look.

Zane Bayne's other purchasable items, some of which were showcased in an exhibition at New York's Museum of Sex, include spiked choke collars and face hoods. The brand's progressive designers, who donated the proceeds of their anti-Trump "NOT MY PRESIDENT and "off with his head" harness worn by feminist activists at the 2017 Women's March to Planned Parenthood, reimagine "fetish gear" that is inspired by BDSM—the overlapping acronyms of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism.

Daskalakis also posted a picture of his husband, Macneal, sporting an inverted pentagram on a Hood By Air t-shirt while standing in front of a fire on TV. Daskalakis joked in the Instagram post's caption that the couple didn't "unlock the gates of hell." In another Instagram upload, Daskalakis tilts his snapback cap to turn the upright star on his hat. "Sunday Funday," he wrote on Instagram, adding the hashtag "#witchcraft."

Aside from the Instagram pentagram apparel, Daskalakis's account follows The Satanic Temple TV, which broadcasts livestream videos of rituals, ceremonies, and gatherings dedicated to "Satanic education." Its vision statement reads: "We will entertain and challenge, delight and disgust. We will explore the artistic, political and transgressive roots of modern Satanism. We will give voice to our diverse communities as Satanists, atheists and social justice activists in a global society [...] We are giving shape and depth to the history and future direction of Satanism and the movements we come in contact with as we work to promote our core values." Full membership costs $6.66 per month, which is known as "the mark of the beast" in Christian culture.

If you think we're cherry picking here, the pentagram is ubiquitous across his social media accounts. A decade ago, Daskalakis uploaded a series of disturbing images to Facebook depicting some sort of candle-lit seance with a crucifix over a pentagram on the table. Another photo from 2012 portrays a ouija board ceremony.

In a photograph from a year prior, Daskalakis straps on a pentagram-adorned helmet with an upside-down cross while in the background, a crown of thorns sits on MacNeal's head, an apparent reference to the wreath of thorns that was placed on Jesus Christ at his crucifixion. "True Blood Monsters," Daskalakis captioned the 2011 post, nicknaming Macneal the "Master Monster." The couple's costumes are also photographed in a close-up. That same year, Daskalakis appeared to mock Jesus Christ in a reenactment of the Last Supper.

Macneal has taken "blood baths" for photo-ops in the tub. Standing in the shower, a knife-wielding Macneal is pictured in another bloody photo with the infamous Scream mask from the horror slasher franchise.

We could play devil's advocate here—say that Daskalakis is just a performative goth like some of us Hot Topic fanatics were in our angsty pre-teen years—except, he and his partner have a business dripping in Satanic symbolism. Years ago, Daskalakis, alongside Macneal, launched The Monster Cycle, a boutique spinning studio in New York City based out of a former gay nightclub, which had taken over an old church in Manhattan.

An old New York Post write-up on The Monster Cycle introduces you to "the fitness freaks who will have you burning (calories) in hell." The featured image spotlights Daskalakis, who as "Daddy D" taught a course that concluded with vodka, with Macneal showing off blood-red devil horns and a Grim Reaper doll on his matte-black Schwinn stationary bicycle. "A goth workout in a cycle dungeon is total bliss," enthused Daskalakis. Counting down to "Devil's Night," the gym hosted "blood raves to the grave" with blood-stained necks.

Outside the basement-level room, a video of a spray-painted girl robbing a convenience store was projected across the front of the spin studio. Among the devilish details, there were graffiti, illustrations of ghosts, and "#HellYeah" signs throughout, and a juice bar was decorated with dozens of Day of the Dead-style skull masks. A rosary was draped sacrilegiously around a hand mounted to the gym's wall that was giving the middle finger.

According to fitness studio review site Sweat Concierge, walking into the converted gothic cathedral was like entering an all-black "dark," "gloomy" dungeon. Changing in the "cramped" co-ed locker room was chronicled as "terrifying," "traumatic," and "stressful," by the review, which advises that visitors "shower at home."

Daskalakis and the city's Health Department installed an in-studio condom dispenser, in which The Monster Cycle thanked the two of them on Instagram for bringing "a Public Health Service to our #monsters ... Literally." The text surrounding the condom-dispensing machine read: "WRAP YOUR MONSTER! #NYCCONDOM."

The gym didn't shy away from playing sexually explicit videos, such as the uncensored version of "Erotica" by Madonna and a tape of blindfolded "Nine Inch Nails" singer Trent Reznor swinging from shackles, during exercise instruction that might have made some clientele uncomfortable with the NSFW sexual content. Patrons also found a polished gimp suit—a garment used for bondage—standing on the hardwood floors.

Daskalakis is credited as an artistic director for producing The Monster Cycle's 2012 video advertisement on YouTube starring MacNeal in a hardcore cardio cycling class. Another 2011 promotional YouTube ad better encapsulates the raw grunginess of the gym, which has "the edgiest workout" Spa Week has ever reviewed. Meanwhile, a PR stunt for "Metal Monday" at The Monster Cycle played clips of head-banging actors bleeding from the nose and flashing the "horns" hand gesture, a red pentagram, and "Hail Satan" on the screen.

At one point, The Monster Cycle exhibited an exclusive art installation for one night only of several black pentagrams painted or taped on the gym's flooring. Daskalakis posted a 2015 Instagram picture of himself holding Macneal seated in the center of the pentagrams as if they're acting out an occultist sacrifice.

In the lounge area, a black bike hung from the ceiling, cloaked in leather fetish gear, while an 11-foot illuminated pentagram leaned against the wall of the yoga area, before the mass sculpture was repositioned, suspending from the ceiling. This statement piece, which Daskalakis beckoned followers to come and see, has made its rounds online, putting the couple's penchant for pentagrams of all sizes on full display. "Our little welcome pentagram," Daskalakis captioned an Instagram photo of the pentagram-shaped light. Silhouettes of models contorting their bodies before the lit-up pentagram were posted to The Monster Cycle's page on Instagram.

The New York Times published a similar descriptive story on The Monster Cycle as a local SoHo portal into the world of "health goth," which is "When Darkness and Gym Rats Meet." MacNeal is featured in Daskalakis's identical Zana Bayne pentagram-graphic muscle tank. In a Facebook post linking The New York Times article, The Monster Cycle's page touts its tagline: "We'll Steal Your Soul." The catchphrase is printed on tank tops The Monster Cycle sold. "Wake up its #soul stealing time," an Instagram caption reads on a 2015 post by the gym.

Other merchandise included a limited edition snapback with a pentagram stitched on it, a "#wicked" t-shirt with a print of Zana Bayne's pentagram harness, and a top with a pentagram underneath The Monster Cycle logo.

Daskalakis and MacNeal have modeled in Zana Bayne's leather ware to help boost sales for its men's section. Strapped in the brand's harnesses, the couple has taken sensual photos in the shower to present Zana Bayne's male collection. A cache of the brand's fetish goods was aesthetically stored in what looks like The Monster Cycle's locker room. "WHATS YOUR FETISH?" read an accompanying caption on the gym's Facebook post.

The Monster Cycle has playfully used 666 in its online deals. For the "666 challenge," which The Monster Cycle held multiple times, cyclists could purchase a six-pack to ride six times and get six free additional classes.

In addition to a flaming 666, there are burning crosses and a "SATAN is WAITIN'" post on its Facebook page.

The pentagram, which has long been affiliated with demonic activity and occult beliefs, is centered in the Sigil of Baphomet, the Church of Satan's official insignia. Satanists themselves are self-indulgent pleasure seekers who embrace a form of hedonism: valuing one's personal wants and desires above all else in human life.

Back then, The Monster Cycle's co-owners denied dabbling in the dark arts. "We don't worship the devil," one of the founders told The New York Post. "We're not Satan followers." MacNeal repeated the saying tattooed on Daskalakis: "There's light even in darkness." Now, many on social media have speculated if Biden, a "devout Catholic," appointed a Satanist to the administrative role, calling the White House staffer "Dr. Devil Worshipper."

Daskalakis protested the public's negative characterization—or demonization—when speaking at the beginning of the month to Out's sister publication The Advocate about the online backlash. "I am certainly not a Satanist," insisted Biden's pentagram-clad appointment, reasoning that the onslaught of allegations are simply because he wears Zana Bayne products. "Sometimes a harness is just a harness, and a tattoo is just a tattoo," reads a subheading of the defensive Sept. 9 article on the "wave of homophobic attacks against Daskalakis."

As part of Facebook's "efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed," the media-state complex came to his rescue, flagging posts as "partly false" with "some factual inaccuracies" that dared to suggest that Daskalakis is a follower of Satan. A "fact-check" from left-wing PolitiFact rating the Satanist claim "false" cited Daskalakis's defense and an email from a CDC spokesperson "confirming" that there is "zero credence" to the accusation. Other liberal outlets criticized the discourse as conservatives Bible-thumping over the "White House's new disease control daddy" and "dogpiling" on Daskalakis about his homosexuality.

But plausible deniability dies down when you have posts replete with Satanic references and you're profiting off of thematic pentagram merch as if you're part of an underground fan club that adores Satan's teachings. The gym surely pushed the envelope when it came to playing on the "RITUALS," "#HellYeah," and "RIDE or DIE" motifs its accounts chanted to embrace the cheeky gimmick. In the gym owners' words: It's "[n]ot just a gym," it's a "CULT." While there's no definitive proof that Daskalakis is a practicing Satanist, there's surmounting visual evidence that builds the case that he has more than just an affinity for Satanic paraphernalia.

POLITICO caught up with Daskalakis about the frenzy, running a sympathetic piece tagged under "Health Care" about how "Biden's monkeypox adviser is trying [to] manage a virus while dodging talk of Satanism." Seated in a coffee shop a few blocks away from the White House, Daskalakis broke down during an afternoon pow-wow with POLITICO. "Jeez, I'm not supposed to cry in front of POLITICO," Daskalakis laughed, repeating his denial of the Satanist charge: "I wish I were that interesting." Daskalakis then proclaimed, "I can't give a f*ck because otherwise I would be rocking back and forth and [someone] would be stroking my non-existent hair."

An official with knowledge of the vetting process told POLITICO that the White House reviewed the D.C. brawny bureaucrat's social media presence but "it didn't prompt any second guessing in the West Wing."

If anything, the Biden official's out-and-proud status was "seen as an advantage in the administration's effort to build credibility with the LGBTQ community," the official indicated. So far, the strategy is working. Daskalakis is rising through the social-credit ranks to become one of the freshest front faces of the Biden administration.

The addition of Daskalakis to Biden's diverse-and-inclusive dream team follows the enlistment of "Woman of the Year" and Biden's transgender U.S. assistant health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, another woke biological male at the helm of America's healthcare system who has perverted the sacred Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. Levine has defied the ethical standard in modern medicine by pushing damaging puberty blockers on prepubescent kids and advocating for the surgical mutilation of school-aged children's developing bodies.