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- The husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Douglas Emhoff, will soon use the newly-created Twitter handle @SecondGentleman.
- President-elect Biden encouraged people to follow the account Friday, when he also announced that he would take over the @POTUS handle.
- A Second Gentleman” title is a historic first for US politics, a variant on the “First Lady” and “Second Lady” addresses for female spouses.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Twitter has added @SecondGentleman to its roster of official political handles as the husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris prepares to become the first male second spouse in US history.
President-elect Joe Biden touted the move Friday, in a tweet announcing his own takeover of the @POTUS handle on January 20 and advising people to follow his transition team, incoming First Lady Jill Biden, Harris, and Harris’ husband Douglas Emhoff.
—President-elect Biden (@PresElectBiden) January 15, 2021
Twitter maintains a series of government-affiliated accounts attached to public office, rather than the individual – such as @POTUS and @FLOTUS for the president and first lady.
Emhoff, a lawyer, has not yet tweeted or followed anyone from the @SecondGentleman account at the time of writing but has attracted almost a quarter of a million followers.
He has more than 700,000 followers on his personal account, @DouglasEmhoff.
Harris will make US history on inauguration when she becomes the first Black, Indian-American, and female Vice President in the country.
As Harris is married to a man, her appointment brings another historic first – the reworking of the traditional titles of “First Lady” and “Second Lady” used for the wives of presidents and vice-presidents, respectively. The creation of @SecondGentleman reflects that.
Emhoff will also be the first Jewish person married to a US president or vice president, according to The Times of Israel.
The @POTUS handle has been in President Donald Trump’s name for his term’s duration, although he generally preferred to use his personal handle @realDonaldTrump.
Twitter permanently suspended that account after the Capitol riots, before which he encouraged protesters to march on the building.
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