Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) poses for Men’s Health
It’s one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington, D.C.. From the teal belt, white pants and pink gingham shirt, to his topless photos adorning the cover of Men’s Health to the TMZ video of him “sightseeing” in a gayborhood, we’re truly Schocked that a noted CBS journalist has outed the Illinois Congressman.
The LGBT community frequently has conversations about the value of outing a person and while many disagree with it as a tactic for creating change, most are on the same page that a person who acts hypocritically has made their own bed.
The HBO documentary “Outrage,” made by Talk About Equality friend, Mike Rogers – reveals boatloads of information about several electeds in DC and their hypocritical voting records vs their sexual orientation. The film was made before GOP Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) graced the halls of the Capitol, but many sitting Senators and Congressman were targets of the film.
Mike Rogers was criticized when the film was released, that nearly all of the film’s focus was on Republicans, with very little attention paid to Democrats. Rogers aptly responded that the Democrats on the hill weren’t acting hypocritically – voting against their own community’s rights and protections.
In comes Itay Hod, an openly gay journalist for CBS whose friend’s roommate is seeing Rep. Schock. Through a “hypothetical” presented on Hod’s Facebook page, a story is told of Hod’s friend walking in on his roommate and the Congressman in the shower together.
Technically speaking, Hod’s post is hearsay and rumor. There is currently a big argument going on around whether or not this outing is at all newsworthy as there’s no evidence presented. Granted, no one’s ever felt the need to present evidence that Schock is heterosexual either – so the double standard here and the hypocrisy of Schock’s voting record should these allegations be true means that this is entirely newsworthy to us.
Check out the post below:
Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL)
“people always say, no one has the right to out anyone. that coming out is a private matter. i disagree. as you can imagine, not a very popular opinion. but bear with me.
here’s a hypothetical: what if you know a certain GOP congressman, let’s just say from Illinois, is gay… and you know this because one of your friends, a journalist for a reputable network, told you in no uncertain terms that he caught that GOP congressman and his male roommate in the shower… together. now they could have been good friends just trying to conserve water. but there’s more. what if this congressman has also been caught by tmz cameras trolling gay bars. now what if you know that this very same guy, the darling of the gop, has also voted against repeal of don’t ask don’t tell, opposed the repeal of doma, is against gay marriage; and for the federal marriage amendment, which would add language to the us constitution banning gay marriage and would likely strike down every gay rights law and ordinance in the country?
Are we still not allowed to out him?
let me ask another question… doesn’t the media have an OBLIGATION to expose his hypocrisy? if he had done something so hypocritical and he wasn’t gay, wouldn’t we demand journalists do their job? but they can’t… because we won’t let them. you’re not allowed to out ANYONE, we tell them.
we’ve created a situation where even though news organizations know this guy is gay, they can’t report it because he hasn’t said so on twitter.
if we keep saying that being gay is genetic; ergo, it’s no different than having blue eyes or blonde hair… than why are not allowed to mention it? why do we need anyone’s consent to talk about their sexuality? are we not allowed to say someone has blue eyes until they post a fb message telling us they are in fact blue?
we’ve been so effective at convincing everyone that outing people is a crime against humanity, that we’ve made it impossible for any network or news organization to talk about this “hypothetical” gay republican congressman and his hypocritical vote against gay rights. they won’t touch it for fear of retribution from GLAAD or HRC. (in fact when my friend’s network interviewed said hypothetical republican, he talked about wanting to find a nice woman to marry… and the network aired it… knowing it was a lie…
so, forgive me if I don’t subscribe to the notion that you’re not allowed to out anyone… in fact in some cases, i’d celebrate it. but I’m crazy that way.”
UPDATE: It seems Rep. Schock has just privatized his Instagram account which was just hours ago open to everyone. This may or may not have something to do with an AmericaBlog post titled “Aaron Schock’s 7 Gayest Instagram Posts of 2013.“
Talk About Equality 
Politicians are “public” servants, they vote on things that affect all of us and therefore any information about them is up for review and scrutiny, including their sexuality.
I’m pretty sure he outed himself when he left the house in that horrendous outfit.
It’s called Public Service. If you don’t believe in who and what you represent, get out and let someone else do the job. He has to live with himself and his decisions.
Hypocrisy is the worst of all sins.
Nice teal belt and pink shirt … I have ones just like them ….
I think it’s very telling of what is wrong with our society that anyone thinks it’s hypocritical for a politician to put his own needs aside and vote based on the needs and views of the people who voted for him and therefore should be represented by him. That’s no hypocrisy, that is actually how it should be. His personal feelings or desires should NOT be what drive his vote. His CONSTITUENTS’ needs should be. He ran and was elected as a Repiblican and he votes as he promised he would when he was elected. Unfortunately most politicians forget that this is how it’s supposed to be, turning into spoiled 4 year old girls stomping around saying? “But I waaaaant it that way” instead of listening to the people who put them in office. What a refreshing story this is — a politician who understands his job!
The problem is not with him putting the desires of his constituents ahead of his own – the problem is with him pretending to be something he’s not. If he were actually honest about who he was and was still voting against LGBT equality and claiming it was because it’s what his constituency wants, then that’s courageous. What he’s doing now is cowardly…and not becoming of a US Congressman.
The other issue comes in when the LGBT community is somehow expected to keep his secret for him while he votes to strip us of our rights. It’s not fair that we should have to shield someone who is actively trying to hurt us simply because he’s gay.
Politicians are public “servants”, they vote on things that affect all of us, and therefore any issue they vote on should be in accordance with their constituency’s views not necessarily what is in their personal best interest. Their personal lives are up for as much scrutiny as anyone cares to pay attention, but the job they were elected to do should reflect the interests of their voters; if that happens their shouldn’t be anything of note occurring when a man or woman votes against self interest.