Aaron Schock, former Illinois congressman who opposed gay marriage during his tenure, turned out to be gay Thursday on social media.
The former congressman, who served in congress for four terms – and was once a rising star of the GOP after being elected at 27 as the youngest member of congress – confirmed the legitimacy of his office. to the Peoria Journal Star, which is part of the USA TODAY Network.
Schock resigned from Congress in 2015 after lavish spending, and was later charged with defrauding the government to finance personal air travel and office renovations, including imitating the twentieth century decor of the British upper class. Many have said that the renovations appear to be based on the television program “Downton Abbey”.
The charges were dropped last year.
He said that while running for Congress in 2008, he “took the same stand” on marriage equality held by party candidate John McCain, also alluding to the fact that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were opposed to gay marriage at the time.
“This fact does not make my position less bad then, but it is sometimes easy to forget that it was the leaders of the two parties who long understood wrongly what it was to defend the right to marry” , did he declare.
Given the choice now, he writes, he “would support LGBTQ rights in any way.”
In his statement, published simultaneously on a Personal website, he explained that his religious family has largely avoided him since he discovered he was gay after pictures allegedly showing him at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival were released last year .
“The news of my weekend at Coachella broke. The online photos clearly showed what I was on the way to tell my mother in person, ”he wrote. “I was not welcome home for Easter.”
Since then, he said, he continues to receive emails from family members “trying to sell it” about the widely condemned practice of conversion therapy.
The response to his post was quick and largely harsh.
“Aaron Schock’s statement does not recognize the years of suffering that his votes against the hate crime protections, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Say and More Caused to LGBTQ Americans”, wrote GLAAD in a tweet.
Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, D-NY, tweeted that Schock “must recognize his misconduct in power and apologize to all those who fought (for his opposition) to gain him his new recognized rights”, but said he should be allowed.
Schock, towards the end of his letter, expresses his gratitude to the activists who broke down the barriers he had not seen otherwise.
“I can live openly now as a homosexual because of the extraordinarily courageous people who had the courage to fight for our rights when I did not do it,” he said.
Collaborators: Chris Kaergard, Peoria Journal Star; The Associated Press. Follow Joshua Bote on Twitter: @joshua_bote.