{"id":266143,"date":"2026-08-15T23:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266143\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T23:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:50:11","slug":"republican-congressman-supported-by-trump-misuses-image-of-scranton-drag-artist-in-attack-ad-lady-lydia-is-fighting-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266143\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Congressman Supported by Trump Misuses Image of Scranton Drag Artist in Attack Ad. Lady Lydia Is Fighting Back."},"content":{"rendered":"

This post caught my eye this morning. A political billboard in the Scranton area included an image of a drag artist \u2013 without their consent. This is the campaign team of Congressman Rob Bresnahan.<\/a> He represents the District in the8th Congressional District. The district includes Wayne County, Lackawanna County, Luzerne County, Monroe County, and Pike County.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the ad recorded from a television. Apparently, the ad ran on tv, radio, and online but is very hard to find. The image in question is Lady Lydia dressed in red with Paige Cognetti. Lady Lydia is the family friendly drag personality of Frank Carey. <\/p>\n

\u201cCongressman Rob Bresnahan Jr singles out images of Frank\u2019s Lady Lydia as if she were some enemy of him or his constituents. It paints her and her pride activism as something to be ashamed of, and a reason to vote against his opponent,\u201d says one supporter.<\/p>\n

Frank explains how the photo was appropriated. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ad itself is crazy the picture they are using is not even a current one It\u2019s from 2025 at the Pride Flag Raising Ceremony, I sang for Paige Cognetti at the event representing the Rainbow Alliance\/Queer NEPA. And for perspective we are located in Lackawanna County<\/p>\n

Shortly after the event, the pic was copied off of the county Facebook page, and The Young Republicans of Luzerne County turned it black and white and we became the cover photo of their FB page. Both Paige and I couldn\u2019t understand what that was all about , lol cause they were in a different county lol<\/p>\n

It was just used to bash her as the Scranton Mayor obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh based PR professional Alistair McQueen told us \u201cas a marketing professional I have to comment that putting \u201cim with them\u201d in the center of the screen doesn\u2019t help their cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

McQueen also emphasized that Lady Lydia\u2019s hair looked fantastic. <\/p>\n

Bresnahan <\/a>proudly features his Trump endorsement on his campaign page, along with the Teamsters and State Troopers. That\u2019s comforting \u2013 state troopers pulling over a drag artist on their way home from a performance, probably a benefit, and what should we expect? And why are the Teamsters supporting Starbuck workers unionizing efforts AND this guy? <\/p>\n

The ad hits all the familiar notes \u2013 trans kids are abused, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, slush funds, etc. <\/p>\n

Bresnahan\u2019s oponent in the race is Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti<\/a>. The great news is that most polls <\/a>show Cognetti has the lead and might flip the seat. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Outraged? Here\u2019s what to do<\/p>\n

I applaud Lady Lydia for pushing back both for her own reputation and to denounce the ongoing attacks on trans neighbors. She\u2019ll have legal fees, but every form of resistance matters. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure she\u2019s going to experience even more fallout because she pushed back on the bullies. <\/p>\n

If you can chip in to help her do that, it is important. <\/p>\n

The images in question come from Lady Lydia and Mayor Cognetti posing at an event in 2025 (red) and then in 2026 (blue.) These are personal images that belong to Frank. Used here with permission. <\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesty of Frank Carey<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Frank Carey<\/p>\n

\tDiscover more from Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents<\/p>\n

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This post caught my eye this morning. A political billboard in the Scranton area included an image of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-266143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}