Another Homophobic Politician Caught Being "Secretly" Gay

Former Rep. Aaron Schock, Republican- Illinois, who

"During his tenure in Congress, the 37-year-old Schock voted against the repeal of "don’t ask, don’t tell" and voted in favor of adding a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He received a zero rating from the Human Rights Campaign for his voting record."

The same Aaron Schock was caught kissing and groping another man on the dance floor at last month's Coachella music festival. It's been on twitter, and facebook, and has been picked up by a few news outlets, including the Washington Examiner article quoted above.

I'm glad people like James (whose facebook post, above, was picked up by the media) called Aaron out on this - if you've actively done harm to the LGBTQ community, you don't get to be 'secretly' queer.

As (now) openly gay politician Barney Frank said,

“...the right to privacy does not include hypocrisy.”

While a news story, this doesn't feel new. Go back to 1979 and you have Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, both leaders of the Christian "ex-gay" conversion group known as Exodus, who left the group to be in a gay relationship with each other. Yup, you read that right. Anti-gay leaders who fell in love with each other...

I think we've gotten to the point where politicians and people who protest too much about other people being queer might be presumed to be queer themselves—otherwise why would they care so much about who other people fall in love with?

Yet, at the same time, it's no great boon to the queer community to have to claim folks who have actively worked against our freedoms as one of our own.

Certainly a point of reference the next time someone's being a real homophobe.

The light in me recognizes and celebrates the light in you,
Lee