* Was appointed by President Biden in 2022 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel & Waste Disposition
* Describes himself as “the first gender fluid person in federal government leadership”
* Member of a drag queen society that openly mocks the Catholic Church
* Derives sexual gratification from so-called “puppy play”
* Has lectured on the subject of “kink” at at a number of college campuses
* Has advised legislators about nuclear policy
* Advised President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on LGBT issues
* Emphasizes the the importance of pronoun usage as a tool for self-identification
* Was fired from the Biden administration in 2022 after he had twice stolen women’s luggage in airports
Born to parents who were Southern Baptist missionaries, Sam Brinton claims that when he was a youngster, his father physically beat him in an effort to purge homosexual feelings out of the boy. When that attempted purge failed, the father forced Brinton to undergo conversion therapy at age 11. “I was told I was the only gay left in the world,” Brinton recalls, “that the government had killed all the gay children, that I had AIDS, that God hated me – a horrifying battery of lies which I had no reason not to believe because these were the people that were supposed to be helping me.”
When conversion therapy failed to convert Brinton away from homosexuality, his father resumed his use of extreme physical abuse. As The Guardian puts it: “Then came the physical torture: forcing his [Sam’s] hands into ice while showing him pictures of men touching men, wrapping his hands in coils that heated up painfully when he saw images of men hugging, showing him gay porn and giving him electric shocks.”
Such abuse had severe psychological consequences for the younger Brinton. He attempted suicide several times before finally deciding that the best approach would be to falsely tell his father that he was no longer a homosexual: “In the end I had to lie and say I was cured just to get out of it.”
Today, Brinton describes himself as a “survivor of a traumatic and torturous conversion therapy experience,” and identifies as “openly genderfluid.”
Following is an overview of Brinton’s most noteworthy educational and work-related experiences:
Brinton was outraged by the Department of Homeland Security’s 2015 raid of the headquarters of Rentboy.com, the self-identified “original and world’s largest male escort site.” The raid was prompted by: (a) charges of promoting prostitution, and (b) a complaint of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act. Though the CEO of Rentboy, Jeffrey Hurant, pleaded guilty to the prostitution charges and was sentenced to six months in prison, Brinton wrote an op-ed defending Rentboy.com following the raid. Among Brinton’s remarks were the following:
“The federal government’s recent attack on Rentboy.com is a devastating assault on some of the most vulnerable members of our community — young adults who, for the first time in their lives, were able to earn a secure living safely through Rentboy after surviving family rejection and homelessness because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. […] For some, working as a paid escort through Rentboy has been a lifeline out of homelessness, despair, and the dangers of living on the street….
“[T]he raid on its headquarters has thrown many gay, bisexual, and transgender young adults into turmoil as their main source of income has been ripped away due to irresponsible and archaic views of sex work.”
Brinton is an active member of a drag queen society called the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” (SPI), a 501(c)3 tax-deductible nonprofit which has long mocked the Catholic Church with members who adopt names such as: “Sister Porn Again; Sister Chastity Boner; Sister Sister Edith Myflesh; Sister Roz Erection; Sister Constance Craving of the Holey Desire; and Sister Risqué of the Sissytine Chapel.” Brinton’s own alter-ego, “Sister Ray Dee O’Active,” is listed as the principal contact on the 2016 and 2018 tax forms of SPI’s Washington, D.C. chapter. In a 2015 interview, Brinton said of his Sister Ray persona: “I am the slutty one. And the nerdy one.” “The Sisters’ mission is in complete alignment with my passion for removing the guilt people feel every day (unjustly placed on them, let your freak flag fly!), and the joy the Sisters bring is so, so, so beautiful,” Brinton adds.
SPI members generally revere Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to whom they commonly refer as a “saint” or “Daddy Fauci.” “I like to think of Daddy Fauci looking down on us and singing this type of song to the young people in his life each and every day,” Brinton said in one video before vocalizing a song about “loving whomever you will.”
In his spare time, Brinton is heavily involved in “puppy play,” an activity where grown men derive sexual gratification from wearing dog masks and behaving like animals. As a 2016 Metro Weekly article about this phenomenon explains:
In the pup community, handlers function the same way dog owners do, keeping a watchful eye on their charge and reining in the pups if needed. It’s the handlers who train the pups and teach them discipline, doling out rewards or punishments based on good or bad behavior.
“Think of any bio-dog,” [Pup] Gryphn says. “You can train them. It’s this ‘go do this’ reward system, just like a bio-dog. So let’s say you’re playing fetch, you throw the ball, the pup picks it up, brings it back, and drops it at your feet. You’re going to reward him, whether it’s petting him or anything like that.
“Or, let’s go to an extreme,” he continues. “Let’s say you’re doing pup play around the house and the pup decides to pee on the floor. Obviously the pup is going to be punished for that. Typically, when we’re being humans, it’s ‘Why would you correct me in front of so-and-so? That’s wrong, don’t do that. Don’t speak for the next five minutes,’ something like that.” […]
Others have polyamorous or open relationships in their personal lives that allow them to have a kink partner who is separate from their real life spouse or partner. Depending on the spouse, they may either shun pup or other fetish scenes entirely, or slowly be brought into the fold after becoming more comfortable with their significant other’s bedroom preferences.
Brinton, who at that time was the handler of a 24-year-old “pup” named Nubi, spoke at length to Metro Weekly about the handler-puppy relationship: “It’s the concept of the teacher and nurturer…. My job is to make sure that while he’s in headspace, I’m keeping him safe…. Pup and I have what I feel is one of the most ideally perfect connections between our personal and kink life. Both of us have other partners, so we come into this space, and then we come out of it, knowing the boundaries of where your kink and non-kink relationships begin and end.”
Brinton further discussed some of the psychological complexities inherent in “puppy play”: “I actually have trouble when we transition from pup play to having sex. Like, ‘No, I can’t have you whimper like that when we’re having sex,’ because I don’t want to mix that world. It’s interesting, because he doesn’t have to come out of pup mode to have me f**k him. I personally have to bring him out of pup perception for me. But then I’m still treating him as a submissive to me.”
“I tell people that if you’re going to be a good handler, you have to listen well,” Brinton elaborated. “I can hear when Pup needs something faster, because of the difference in the grunts or the moans…. A pup should never get so dry that he has to ask for water. A handler should know that even if he’s not whimpering for water, you know this is the time for something that he needs.”
Brinton also told Metro Weekly: “One of the hardest things about being a handler is that I’ve honestly had people ask, ‘Wait, you have sex with animals?’ They believe it’s abusive, that it’s taking advantage of someone who may not be acting up to a level of human responsibility…. The other misperception is that I have some really messed up background, like, did I have some horrible childhood trauma that made me like to have sex with animals.”
Brinton has lectured on the subject of “kink” at a number of college campuses. On March 7, 2018, for instance, he taught a “Physics of Kink” session for the University of Wisconsin-Stout Gender and Sexuality Alliance. A promotional description of this session — posted on Instagram — said it would include “live demos on the tension forces of bondage, thermodynamics of wax play, physics of impact, and circuits of electro play!”
On another occasion, Brinton led a “Kink 101” session at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. A photo from that event shows Brinton wearing a dress while standing over three kneeling males who have leather bondage-style dog masks on their heads.
In 2017 Brinton gave a lecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Following are some excerpts from a summary of the event, which one attendee published in his college newspaper:
He [Brinton] was wearing all black, except for his red, glittery heels, and the words “Ropes, Whips, & Kinks, Oh My!!” were projected onto the wall behind him. […]
I went in expecting a talk about his political experiences working to end conversion therapy, sexuality, and the LGBTQ community, mostly because that is what the description told me. Brinton dispelled this, describing the event as “modern sex-ed” and “an exploration of kink.” He began by giving us the history of kink and sex education, including the Kama Sutra, the making of taboo by Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Sigmund Freud, the “Leather Era,” and the rise of the term BDSM. […]
On the subject of kinks directly, Brinton explained the difference between headspace and physical types of play. Headspace involves the use of a mental state, and includes kinks like adult babies and diaper lovers, primal play, humiliation, degradation, and pup play. Physical play, on the other hand, involves the use of toys and objects to set the scene. This includes the more widely known kinks, including bondage, impact play, flogging, and temperature play.
After the presentation aspect of the talk ended, we moved onto a question session. Throughout the entire talk, Brinton was open about his experiences, the kinks he partakes in, and the nature of his relationships. He left us with countless anecdotes, like how he enjoys tying up his significant other like a table, and eating his dinner on him while he watches Star Trek. […] He also expanded on his experiences with pup play, the differences between kinks and fetishes, and how to safely choke one’s partner.
We then moved onto demonstrations. Brinton taught us about bondage, starting with wrist restraints and ending with harnesses. He took volunteers that he used to demonstrate the rope tying techniques, and others to demonstrate them on himself…. He also passed out ropes to the audience and encouraged us to practice on each other.
When the demonstrations ended, he invited us to come play with his toys or talk to him more…. He told us more stories, some about working in Washington, D.C., the few times he helped Michelle Obama pick out shoes, his efforts to end conversion therapy, and his experiences as a dominatrix.
In May 2017, Brinton proposed to his boyfriend, Kevin Rieck. the couple married two years later.
On Brinton’s personal website, he has posted a biography that says: “Sam has worn his stilettos to Congress to advise legislators about nuclear policy and to the White House where he advised Democratic President Obama and [First Lady] Michelle Obama on LGBT issues. He shows young men and women everywhere he goes that they can be who they are and gives them courage. Once, while he was walking around Disney World in 6 inch stilettos with his boyfriend, a young gay boy saw Sam with his boyfriend and started crying. He told his mother, ‘it’s true, Mom. WE can be our own princess here.’”
In a September 2019 video, Brinton spoke at length about the importance of pronoun usage as a means of self-identification: “I use ‘they’ and ‘them’ as my pronouns, and when someone [else also] uses ‘they’ and ‘them’ as my pronouns, I feel like that person is listening to me, that person cares about me…. Respect for my gender is really, really important.… It’s also really important to recognize that pronouns change sometimes. Many of us will not always have the same pronouns, because our gender is changing. Or our gender realization has changed.”
In February 2022, President Joe Biden appointed Brinton to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy. Upon the appointment, Brinton told his friends and followers on LinkedIn: “In this role I’ll be doing what I always dreamed of doing, leading the effort to solve the nation’s nuclear waste challenges.” He also noted proudly that he would “even be (to my knowledge) the first gender fluid person in federal government leadership.”
In a February 2, 2022 letter to Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Deputy Inspector General Norbert Vint, a Department of Energy whistleblower asserted that Brinton, whose “background is limited to select advocacy work,” lacked the credentials traditionally required of a “high-standing member” of the Senior Executive Service. Further, the whistleblower claimed that “undue political influence and preferences [had been] applied” to help Brinton obtain his high-level DOE position “over other more highly qualified candidates.”
On September 16, 2022, Brinton, who was traveling by airliner without any luggage of his own, stole a female traveler’s Vera Bradley suitcase (worth $2,325) from the luggage carousel at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport. He then opened up the woman’s bag and transferred her clothes to the drawers of his Minneapolis hotel room.
After the owner of the suitcase later reported the theft to police, officers reviewed airport video surveillance which showed Brinton taking the luggage and removing the name tag from it. Investigators subsequently confirmed that Brinton had proceeded to use the same suitcase during at least two subsequent trips to Washington, D.C., on September 18 and October 9.
When a police officer called Brinton by phone on October 9 to discuss the matter, Brinton told him: “If I had taken the wrong bag, I am happy to return it, but I don’t have any clothes for another individual. That was my clothes when I opened the bag.” Two hours later, Brinton called the officer back and apologized for not having been “completely honest,” though he claimed that his transgression was a result of his having been tired and distracted.
On October 26, 2022, Brinton was charged with felony theft of a movable property without consent, an offense carrying a penalty of up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
Brinton was quietly placed on leave soon after the charges against him were filed, and fellow DOE official Kim Petry was named as his replacement in November 2022. News of the airport incident was not reported in the media until November 28, 2022.
In early December 2022, reports surfaced that Brinton, on an even earlier occasion (in July 2022) at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, had stolen yet another woman’s luggage. After a felony warrant for grand larceny was issued against Brinton in connection with that crime, he was fired by the Department of Energy.
On April 12, 2023, Brinton pleaded “no contest” to the theft charge in Las Vegas. In exchange for that plea, the prosecutor reduced the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor, thereby enabling Brinton to avoid jail time and requiring only that he pay $3,670 in restitution to the victim.
On May 17, 2023, police in Montgomery County, Maryland arrested Brinton at his home as a “fugitive from justice” vis-a-vis yet another luggage-stealing incident — one that had occurred at Reagan National Airport and had been brought to the police department’s attention in February 2023. Brinton was subsequently jailed and held without bond, and a judge ordered him extradited to Virginia on grand larceny charges.
Biden Taps Non-Binary Drag Queen to Look after Nuclear Waste
By Morgan Phillips
February 16, 2022