Super Bowl Performer Addresses Right-Wing Backlash Over Scene Of Two Men Dancing
A dancer who took part in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show has addressed the conservative backlash his segment of the performance has come under.
Dan Santiago was seen dancing closely with fellow performer Igor Faria during one brief section of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl set, while the Grammy-winning singer sang his Debí Tirar Más Fotos cut EoO.
Although the shot of the two men dancing together was only shown for a split-second, that certainly didn’t stop certain right-wing pundits from using it as an excuse to bash this year’s Super Bowl show.
Perhaps most notably, House Of Representatives member Andy Ogles went as far as describing the moment as “gay pornography” that “openly glorified sodomy”.
“Last night’s halftime show was a disgrace, and it mocked American families. Depicting gay pornography on prime time has no place in our culture,” Ogles claimed in a Facebook post, describing the sequence as “pure smut” and lamenting that children had been “forced to endure explicit displays of gay sexual acts, women gyrating provocatively, and Bad Bunny shamelessly grabbing his crotch while dry-humping the air” at the 2026 Super Bowl.
Dancer Dan Santiago later had his say during an interview with Them.
“I find it really sad because the performance is also bigger than that one moment, although it is really important,” he said. “I think the fact that they’re hyperfixating on that moment says more about them than it does about the performance.”
He added that both he and the man he danced with, Igor Faria, are straight, and continued: “I think it’s important for men to see that dancing like that. What I want to say is like it’s not that deep, right? Like we were just doing our job.
“And at the same time, it is that deep for us because we are doing the performance, being so comfortable in our masculinity that it wasn’t hard.”
Dan continued: “I think that queerness deserves to be seen and heard and normalised. It’s important for the world to see that masculinity doesn’t need to be toxic, and it doesn’t need to look a certain way.”
He also wrote on Instagram: “I’m proud to dance for an artist like [Bad Bunny] who uses love to diffuse so much of the hate that’s going on in the world.
“I’m proud to be a Puerto Rican from New York. To represent my people. To represent the Latin community. Our bodies. Our stories. Our joy. Seen in HISTORY.”
In his Facebook post, Ogles called for a federal investigation into this year’s Super Bowl show, with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reportedly ruling that no broadcasting rules were broken with the performance.
Shortly after Bad Bunny’s performance, Donald Trump slammed the Super Bowl Halftime Show in a much-derided Truth Social post, while leaked footage later suggested that the president had still chosen to watch it live over Turning Point USA’s widely-panned “alternative” show, featuring the musician Kid Rock as its headliner.
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