Right-wing gay journalist James Kirchick says it was wrong to out Aaron Schock because he had no real power

He posted this less than 10 minutes ago and you're already on it, OP. That's sus to me.

"This self-hating faggot deserves your love and respect. So what if he spent years making your lives harder while he was himself in the closet?"

What an asshole - and Shock was from Illinois.

He wants people to be compassionate toward right-wingers and those from religious backgrounds because they may suffer consequences from being outed.

What about EVERYONE else being persecuted by the religious and right-wingers?

I can't believe this guy - the balls to say this bullshit. And he's gay too?

What the FUCK have Republicans done for ANY minority - let alone their constant fight against gay rights? It's hard to believe these gays exist. So stupid.

Wasn't Schock out there making out with guys at Coachella and public events? If you're making out with dudes IN PUBLIC, you are outing yourself

Aaron Schock made life measurably harder for a lot of people - not just the queers, either. For years, he voted to cut Medicaid, cut Food Stamps, defund public libraries, sequester federal funds and fire federal workers, and on and on. He was totally okay with library book bans and DADT. He was a rock-ribbed, conservative Republican on every major issue.

His hiding his cock-smoking is the LEAST worst thing about him. And I don't care who he screws. He's still an asshole.

Also there were 4 things Schock supported that were anti-gay: remove gays from military, remove our right to marry, remove hate crimes protections, and remove discrimination against gay and lesbian students.

How this idiot doesn't know this - or he does and he, like all gay Republicans, have to somehow justify their stupid stance by omitting or obfuscating facts.

This included voting: against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", a policy that banned openly gay and bisexual people from serving in the military. against amending federal hate crime laws to include crimes where the victims were targeted on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, and disability. for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. against the Student Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 1652) and the Safe Schools Improvement Act (H.R. 1199), both of which sought to protect LGBTQ+ students.

Gay Republicans hate themselves and their peers. They don't have any real gay friends.

They don't support same-sex marriage, claiming "The government should get out of the marriage business!"

They don't support hate crimes legislation, because "All crimes are hateful."

They're rich cocksuckers who will sell their own civil rights - AND YOURS TOO - for a tax break. They figure they can live like the faggots in Saudi Arabia, where if you're rich enough to build a wall around your house, then no one will care what you do in your bedroom.

He hates Trump and hates Russia. He ain’t all that bad. He was a gay activist for decades and wants the T dropped. He’s been on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show to discuss the threat coming from Russia and called out RT as a propaganda machine and people like Glenn Greenwald for being useful idiots with their Clinton-loathing.

Kirchick is positioning himself as a Kapo in the Trump-MAGA GLBT "re-education" camps.

Aaron was making out and groping instahos in public. And by public I don't mean a park at 3 AM.

And before he did all that, the discussion I remember during his time in the House was of him being spotted in public gay places in Chicago and maybe DC. . And then there was him talking about burning a belt.

I think if you're going to do all that while also voting against gay rights on basically everything (not just marriage), then you're an idiot and shouldn't be surprised when you're "outed".

"I'm not one of THOSE gay men. I hate the TRANZ just like you! Let me stay at your garden party!"

"I can ditch my Lezzie friends too, if you want. Will that keep me out of your prison camps?"

Aaron Schock resigned abruptly from Congress in 2015 to avoid an investigation into falsifying reimbursement receipts from the federal government. An Illinois newspaper proved he had put down having driven many more miles on his SUV than was on the odometer.

While rumors circulated far and wide about him being gay, largely because of his anti-gay voting recording. Schock outed himself in an Instagram post in March 2020.

R8 - he was a gay activist? I'm sorry - he was born in 1983. Just because he wrote some stories about gays and did some research on gay rights, it does not make him an activist - or did he do anything to promote change.

The hard work was done by gay activists in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s - not some Johnny come-lately who enjoys all the progress already made by previous generations.

I don't care if he doesn't like Trump or RT - at this point, and it has been this way for a few decades - any support and coddling of Republicans by a gay or lesbian is assisting the enemy.

For someone who supposedly is a historian on gay rights and causes - the fact that he freely omits Shock's other anti-gay stances and says 'if a politician is actively campaigning against gays then they should be outed'. Um - Schock DID in many ways as stated above - FOUR separate bills and policies.

Now he wants to be 'oh Republicans aren't that bad' - YES THEY FUCKING ARE. You're not paying attention. And you've never suffered one FRACTION of discrimination that the rest of us have.

So misguided...

This is the weirdness of the closet, and the weirdness of what we've allowed by embracing the closet as a general principle. Pretty much anything else about any public figure is entirely fair game. If they're cheating on their wife, as long as it's all straight and only with women, feel free to tell people. If they're cheating on their taxes or stealing or grifting, sure, absolutely talk about it. If they are saying they care about some issue but all the time secretly opposing it or somehow voting against it, sure exposure is pretty much your duty.

Only in the case of the deep, dark, shameful, terrible SECRET that they like the sex where the man go up into the man, only then is everybody supposed to agonize about what effect exposure will have. Only then is everyone supposed to blather on about their family and their moronic religious beliefs and the terrible effect this could have on their career and their home life if this disgusting matter is made public. Sorry, sick of that shit. Fuck that noise and all that. If you think it is perfectly okay to talk about any other secret about some person, even if public exposure of that secret could lead to a jail cell, yes, you are free to talk about this.

R15 - it's only off limits for Republicans too.

They say all the gay jokes, anti-gay rhetoric, want to strip away our rights - but then when it's one of THEM?

OH - MY - YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR! Think of his reputation and family! And media will bury the story.

Michelangelo Signorile got a lot of pushback in the 90s for starting outing people and it died down.

But fuck that - it is 2025. Gloves off - expose them all at all levels. CEOs, Politicians and any right-wing supporters.

Oh, but, R13, he wrote a couple of articles for The Atlantic, one being on the underground gay scene in DC in the days of yore pimping his book on the same subject - stunning and brave! A true activist!

I'm still not sure why there was any expectation of privacy regarding his sexuality when he was publicly doing dirty shit at one of the most photographed events in the world. He attended coachella several times. The groping and kissing pics and vids taken there were before he stated on instagramhe was gay, but so what?

I wonder who they're talking about?

Tim Miller really wants it to be Adam Kinzinger.

R19, I wonder if it was Paul Ryan?

R19 It's Bryan Steil. He's early-40s, conservative, has no wife or kids and is never seen with a lady friend, but LOVES his mother.

I assumed it was Adrian Smith from Nebraska, we've talked about him before, he allegedly had a flight attendant bf back in the day

Can't be r21. This one had multiple serious girlfriends and is now engaged.

Unless the guy is just lying about all the details, in which case, it could be anyone or no one at all.

get your hormones in check James, they're affecting your judgement. The "bad" parts of being outed are in place because of folks like Schock and those he aligns with.. Is this fucking rocket science or something?