Doug Jones' gay son stares down Mike Pence as his father is sworn into Senate

#NoCaptionNeeded

As his dad was being sworn-in as the first Democrat to serve in the United States Senate in over 20 years, Carson Jones was about become something of an internet celebrity.

Standing behind his dad, Doug Jones, and to his left, the younger Mr Jones — an openly gay man — cast a side-eye at Vice President Mike Pence, who worked to limit civil rights for gay people while serving as governor of Indiana.

“#NoCaptionNeeded,” Mr Jones later captioned an Instagram post with a photo of the side-eye.

 

#dougjones #swearingin #washingtondc #capitol #wemadeit #nocaptionneeded

A post shared by Carson Jones (@thedapperzookeeper) on Jan 3, 2018 at 12:44pm PST

The photo quickly caught fire online, with people cheering the look, and characterizing it as a symbolic snapshot of progress standing up in the face of bigotry.

“Yaaasss, this is the level of side eye I wanna give,” one commenter on Mr Jones’ Instagram, which is named ‘thedapperzookeeper’, wrote.

“Photo of the decade: Doug Jones being sworn in, while his openly gay son QUIETLY DESTROYS THE SOUL OF MIKE PENCE,” a user on Twitter wrote.

The story of the elder Mr Jones’ improbable ascension to the Senate has been one of inclusion. His election over Republican candidate Roy Moore in Alabama last month was bolstered heavily by support from black men and women who showed up at the polls in astounding numbers to support Mr Jones.

Mr Jones ultimately won the Senate seat by just under 2 per cent of the vote in the special election there, helped at least in part by allegations against Mr Moore by women who claim that he pursued, or sexually assaulted them while they were teenagers and he was in his 30s (Mr Moore denied the allegations of wrongdoing).