And let's not forget the recent contretemps involving Kentucky's Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally. McNally never met an anti-gay law he couldn't cheer for. Never met a drag queen he couldn't try to criminalize. He's an integral part of Kentucky's current crusade to ban queer people from public life.

Except when he's making salacious comments and sending provocative private messages to a gay 18-year-old Only Fans producer and Instagram personality.

"I like to encourage all my constituents," the 79-year-old McNally explained when asked why he sent a heart emoji as a comment to a photo of the boy with his underwear pulled down to reveal most of his buttocks.

Reporters later revealed he had "encouraged" the gay teen at least a couple times a week for over a year.

Haggart's law? I dunno. McNally isn't known for public homophobia. He doesn't say terrible things about trans and gay people. He apparently never solicited this boy for sex or asked for a meeting. He never sent crude or demeaning messages.

He sent appreciative messages, the sort that the young man expects to receive and does receive from hundreds of online gay "fans."

So here's the thing. McNally evidently feels no contradiction over expressing sexual attraction toward a young man while at the same time being a key player in one of the most homophobic state governments in the United States in recent times.

He brazened out the controversy and did not even approach apologizing for his apparent hypocrisy. (Well, he apologized through his staff for not understanding the Internet, but whatever ... He understood it well enough to identify and "encourage" a gay twink for a couple of years.)

And to make things even more bizarre, he spoke up in appreciation of gay people and explained that he is not homophobic — even though he's busy passing laws that are having such a chilling effect on LGBTQ communities that some Kentucky towns are canceling Pride celebrations this summer, out of fear of legal repercussions.

Bizarre? Yes. Inexplicable? Not really. Whatever the lieutenant governor's private feelings are, he's wholly on board with the notion of keeping homosexuality in the shadows ... outside of full respectability and strongly discouraged by law.

That makes him like a majority of conservative lawmakers in the US today. They're probably more dangerous than flamboyant gay homophobes who get caught out in hypocrisy.

Why? McNally is more popular with Republican voters in Kentucky than ever. He showed them exactly what they wanted to see.