Patti LaBelle’s Adopted Son Or Nephew Was At The Center Of A Twitter Black Gay Guy Hunt
A baffling string of events occurred on Twitter yesterday and this time it wasn’t Donald Trump’s fault. Well, not directly. This one’s more on Patti LaBelle. The AV Club reports that Patti’s “son and/or nephew” might be behind one of the greatest political scandals involving an elected official since, well, since whatever it is that Donald Trump is doing right at this very moment. It began with ultra-conservative former Lehigh County Commissioner Dean Browning, who is neither Black or gay (as far as we know) announcing “I’m a black gay guy” on Twitter, and everybody going “what?” And it ended with a man named William Holte, who is either Patti’s adopted son or nephew (or the nephew she adopted) but is in fact a Black gay guy (and conservative) who also goes by the aliases Dan Purdy and Byl Holte on social media, claiming “I’m not a sock puppet”. And now we all know Patti must have felt up on that stage trying to sing This Christmas without her lyrics or backup singers— confused and frustrated.
Let’s take it from the top. AV Club reports:
Former Lehigh County Commissioner Dean Browning, a failed Pennsylvania congressional candidate, dropped a tweet on Tuesday that raised plenty of eyebrows. It came after Browning criticized Joe Biden, who the Republican declared would “destroy in 4 months” what Trump “built in 4 years.”
After a user offered a correction—“You mean what Obama build in 8 years”—Browning replied, “I’m a black gay guy and I can personally say Obama did nothing for me, my life only changed a little bit and it was for the worse. Everything is so much better under Trump though. I feel respected – which I never do when democrats are involved.”
Dean may have claimed to be a Black gay guy, but his Twitter profile was singing a whole different tune. Think less Todrick Hall and more divorced dad in a Beach Boys cover band that only plays God Only Knows because they won’t do secular music. Naturally, people assumed that Dean might have a secret “sock puppet account,” a fake online identity, that he failed to switch over to before tweeting.
TFW you forget to switch to your sock-puppet account pic.twitter.com/35a0LIeygP
— Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) November 10, 2020
And so, the band played on. The band in this case being internet detectives determined to unearth Dean’s assumed alter ego. Somebody found out that a user named @DanPurdy322 frequently interacts with Dean’s account and regularly describes themselves as a Black gay guy who would very much like to see Donald Trump have a second term.
And here's a selection of times @DanPurdy322, whose account is brand new and who replies to @DeanBrowningPA A LOT, has described himself as a black gay guy. pic.twitter.com/z5xabE2Fgn
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) November 10, 2020
For a brief moment in time, everybody assumed that Dan was Dean and that Dean was Dan and that no actual Black gay guys were involved. How wrong they were.
so from googling it would appear @deanbrowningpa's black guy identity "Dan Purdy" was also once used on the suspended account @soulcookie322. but before that account became Dan Purdy, it was a white guy named "Pat Riarchy" and "White Goodman". dean is really something else pic.twitter.com/gFkUPkNDPV
— food truck drove away with my debit card (@fart) November 10, 2020
But soon we were all to find out just how the soul cookie crumbles (like a limp biscuit turns out). Come to find that Dean was just doing a friend of solid by Tweeting a message from his pal, the real Dan Purdy/Soulcookie/What’sPattiLaBelleGotToDoWithIt-Don’tWorryI’llGetThereInAMinuteI’mWaitingForMyBackupsingers.
Regarding the tweet that is going viral from my account — I was quoting a message that I received earlier this week from a follower.
Sorry if context was not clear.
Trump received record minority votes & record LGBTQ votes.
Many people won’t say it vocally, but do in private.
— Dean Browning (@DeanBrowningPA) November 10, 2020
According to AV Club:
Browning then tweeted out a video from “Dan Purdy,” who revealed himself to be a Black Trump supporter.
The only problem? The man in the video was alleged by many to be someone named “Byl Holte,” not “Dan Purdy.” We visited his public Facebook account (user name: william.m.holte) and were able to confirm that not only does Holte use the same avatar as “Dan Purdy,” but “Dan Purdy” is in all of Holte’s photos, leading one to believe that “Dan Purdy” is Byl Holte. You can also visit Holte’s Instagram here. It’s the same guy.
Turns out "Dan Purdy" is run by famous singer Patti LaBelle's son William Holte… pic.twitter.com/NdTEEHN9sJ
— William LeGate 🇺🇸 (@williamlegate) November 10, 2020
Phew. Ok, they’re here. Shake a hand, shake a hand now (or is it shake “her” hand? A mystery to this day)!
Twitter has since suspended the Dan Purdy account and nobody save Patti herself can explain how exactly they are related or how he turned out to be, as one Twitter user put it, “a horrible misogynist & overall bigot who is extremely horny for hunter biden.” At any rate, here’s Dean/Dan/Soulcookie/Byl/WhyIsHisHeadShapedLikeThat singing one of my favorite Christmas songs (my most favorite obviously being Patti’s 1996 live rendition of This Christmas) originally recorded by Nat King Cole, The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot.
10/ I SALVAGED THE VIDEO. Here is Byl Holte, Patti LaBelle’s son. aka not at all Dan Purdy pic.twitter.com/QGcPMK3HZT
— Karin Sung 🗽 (@KarinSung_) November 10, 2020
I’m sure once he’s warmed up his voice comes down to a lovely tenor.
Pic: Instagram