A dancer who was seen grinding on another male dancer during Bad Bunny’s history-making Super Bowl performance has hit out at the “absolutely ridiculous” homophobic backlash to the brief moment. 

During Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Half Time show on Sunday (8 February), which broke records to become the most-watched Half Time show in history, dancers Dan Santiago and Igor Faria were spotted grinding on each other.

The fleeting moment came while Bad Bunny performed his 2025 song “EoO” atop a white pick-up truck, with Santiago and Faria seen hanging out of the truck’s doors, pressing up against one another.

For queer viewers, the second-long scene became the subject of viral memes and fawning GIFs on social media. For Republican lawmakers, it became a perfect pawn in the anti-LGBTQ+ culture wars.

Speaking to Them, Santiago – who is straight, as is Faria – said that it was “really sad” that the moment was getting so much attention, considering the cultural significance of Bad Bunny’s Spanish-language performance as a whole.

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“I find it really sad because the performance is also bigger than that one moment, although it is really important. I think the fact that they’re hyper-fixating on that moment says more about them than it does about the performance,” he said, adding that “men will do anything to protect masculinity at all costs”.

In a Facebook post on 9 February, Tennessee Republican and US House of Representatives member Andy Ogles slammed Bad Bunny’s performance for “depicting gay pornography on prime time” TV. 

“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,” he wrote.

He referred to the performance as “pure smut” and claimed that “children were forced to endure explicit displays of gay sexual acts, women gyrating provocatively, and Bad Bunny shamelessly grabbing his crotch while dry-humping the air”.

The Republican, who opposes same-sex marriage, said that the performance had “openly glorified sodomy and countless other unspeakable depravities”. He later confirmed that he had sent a letter to Alabama Republican US Rep. Brett Guthrie, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to request a formal congressional inquiry into the NFL and NBCUniversal over the performance.

Santiago said that the backlash to the performance was “absolutely ridiculous” and that he was proud to be part of a queer moment on such a huge platform.

 “I do hold it with a lot of pride because a lot of my friends are queer and I take being an ally seriously,” he said.

“There’s a lot of homophobia in the world. So being an ally feels really important right now with the hate that is just spewing in the world.”

He went on to urge that while the moment itself is “not that deep,” he believes 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.”

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