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The love between a dad and his son is a beautiful thing. And no troll on the internet can ruin it. When an artistic photo of former Vice President Joe Biden holding and kissing his son Hunter on the cheek surfaced on the internet, right-wing commentator and TV host John Cardillo criticized the fatherly expression of love and called it ‘creepy.’

However, the internet was quick to respond in the most beautiful way. Liz Plank, journalist and author of ‘For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Representation,’ invited the men of Twitter to share photos of them being held by their dads. The photos are powerful, honest, and we hope you enjoy them, dear Pandas. Let us know which ones you liked the most in the comments and remember to upvote your fave ones.

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Natalie Bohrteller
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So much love in one picture... if that creeps you out, there's obviously something wrong with YOU.

Amazon QT
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly!!! People can be such asshats about these kind of things. That’s what makes the world go around... love for each other.

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Raine Soo
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This photo is beautiful, and oh, so bittersweet. I wish that I had a photo of my dad (in his later years) and me as well. I miss him dearly.

John Smith
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hello! I’m a conservative and a Christian and don’t understand why this is supposed to be offensive. I always kissed my dad and hugged him into adulthood, and after he dies I’m 2017 don’t regret anything! If you’re a Christian and you have a problem, then remember that God desires to hold us, John rested against Jesus breasts at the last supper, “greet each other with a holy kiss.” If anyone has a problem with this then there is something deeper with regard to their own uncomfortableness with human touch.

Tabitha L
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is a beautiful picture. I'm crying just looking at it. Gorgeous.

Cynthia Jackson Hodges Seamen
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

God bless you, I wish for your sake you did too 💔 Before my youngest son past I was fortunate enough to hear him say “ I love you mom “ and to this day I can still hear it in my mind if I listen hard. Know that he loved you with his very last thought. God Bless and stay safe.

Cupcake168
Community Member
4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I just voted every. Single. Pic. Up! (Yes, I know that’s not how bp works, I did it only to set a statement against sucking #johncardillo s

Laura Perkinson
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My son kissed his father on the cheek his whole life, well into his 40's and he is glad as this is part of his memories after losing his father. Those who find it creepy never had a loving family that is for sure.

Carmen Honacker
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

God, the "conservatives" in this country are not only hypocrites, but uptight as hell. In Europe it is quite natural to embrace and kiss your father or mother. What a bunch of jerks to take something so beautiful and turn it into something sinister and dirty

Cheryl Fontaine
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The picture of President Biden hugging his son doesn't creep me out a bit---- now the picture of tRump with a half-dressed very young ivanka sitting on his lap, that's inappropriate as hell! What hypocrisy from tRumpanzees...what hypocrisy!

Sherry Hart
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This picture says it all.....no need for words😍😭

Sue Clifford
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This really tugs at your heart strings. This picture is beautiful in so many ways.

Elizabeth Ham
Community Member
4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love pictures like this! People that are uncomfortable with this picture have homophobia issues or father issues of their own...

Pam Wilson-Hallinan
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hug and kiss my family members ALL THE TIME! People that don't are dead inside. How dare people criticize others for showing love in their own family.

Pam Wilson-Hallinan
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hug and kiss my family members ALL THE TIME! People that don't are dead inside. How dare people criticize others for showing love within a family.

Mairlady
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Absolutely Beautiful Photo! A son comforting his ill father, what the hell is wrong with that? Negative s**t should be put in the trash can!

Sydney
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My dad never hugged me. He was an alcoholic that would verbally and physically abuse me. He hated me. My mother was emotionally distant and killed herself when I was 16. She never hugged me or told me she loved me. I don’t hug people. I don’t feel things like I should. I wish I could be like other people, laughing, loving, and enjoying things but I don’t. I just go through the motions. I know it’s how I was raised. I wish I had parents that loved me and expressed it like these two. This isn’t creepy or wrong. How I was raised is wrong.

Edie Joyce
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sydney, so sorry that happen to you, breaks my heart. I hope you find a true and caring loving person Gid Bless

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June Dominguez
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Both these pictures are absolutely beautiful and I absolutely hate trolls who are really jealously coveting someone else’s love they never got! And they love causing real trouble!

Chip_Boy
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm in my 7th decade as a male on this earth, and these images bring a flood of tears to my face. How absolutely lucky these males are, my father hated me. I was one of five children, but the first born son. My grandparents(fathers parents) being immigrants from France and Greece just after WWl, worshipped the first born son. They told me it was tradition.My father told me once when I was fourteen, that he and my mother would have had a great life if not for us kids. I wish I could have experienced the love these men have for each other. It's beautiful.

Brenda Newnam-Simons
Community Member
4 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

Karen Morana
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I liked this picture man with father who died shortly . Not Biden ..

Tasha Underwood
Community Member
4 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Totally creepy. I think it’s how the younger guy is staring into the camera and looks so awkward. Doesn’t look natural at all...looks like a grown up who was molested as a kid.

Brenda Newnam-Simons
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The younger guy? That is his son. Did you not even read the subject? You are the bad seed in this conversation. Trumpanzee!!! HA HA

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Tom Nichols, senior adviser to The Lincoln Project, writes on USA Today that the photo of 77-year-old Biden and his 50-year-old son might seem “awkward,” but it’s moving. 

“Even strangers to these men would know what it means. All of us, after all, were once children. In this case, to know the circumstances in which it was taken is to know that it is a picture full of pain, love, forgiveness, and acceptance, and to look at it for even more than a moment is to experience at least some of those emotions, especially in the memory of our own parents or children,” Nichols writes, alluding to the fact that Biden stood by his son during his struggles with drug abuse and other troubles.

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Liz
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I lost someone who I didn't see for nearly a year because of COVID. By the time I finally got a test and planned a safe way to travel home without exposure, it was too late. He was already in the hospital where we couldn't see him. It breaks my heart. I could have gone months before if I had just planned. But we always think we'll have more time. My advice is to make a plan to safely see your loved ones. Get tested, find a safe way to travel without risking exposure, or plan to quarantine and test on arrival. You can make it happen and you will deeply regret it if you don't.

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According to Nichols, the way that right-winger Cardillo reacted to the photo shows how his sense of masculinity has become corroded and shows his inner insecurity.

“More accurately, it is a child’s view of masculinity. Come on, Dad, quit it, guys don’t kiss. This is the insecurity of the boys who did not learn that to accept a father’s embrace is part of becoming a man,” Nichols explains.

He adds that males (not men) like Cardillo are “to be pitied” because they might have had troublesome family relationships that led them to have a “terrified” and “embryonic male identity of a small child.”

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Dorothy Parker
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They were very fortunate to be able to have such a wonderful relationship.

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Kevin Donegan
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Twins (with the exception of about a 25 year age span). You can tell they're father and son.

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Dorothy Parker
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dean, if you see this, I'm so sorry for your loss. Such a sweet image..

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mysty
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4 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i might get a lot of downvotes but people are only saying that is inappropriate because of his place in the dems and the fact that he is running against trump. if he was just an average man people would see this as an adorable father-son connection.

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Kevin Donegan
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's nice to have your best friend with you during such an emotional experience.

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Dorothy Parker
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The little hand holding dad. No question of how much live they xhare.

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Kevin Donegan
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You are blessed man to know that your father loved you unconditionally every day of your life.

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Kevin Donegan
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It took me a second to see the "hand placements" in the first photo. I laughed out loud.

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Levi
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The neck of the suits r so close I thought he had 2 heads for a second

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MiniMaus
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

oMG poor child and poor parents. What an ass of a surgeon

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Colleen
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Seeing this has me wanting to have my son return to this age for just a few minutes and I would hold him just as close.

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Kevin Donegan
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At least you recognize the internalized homophobia. Now, you can actively battle those demons when they appear.

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