Ex-Rep. Aaron Schock out as gay, disowned by fay

Contents:

• AARON SCHOCK, FORMER ILLOIS CONGRSMAN, COM OUT AS GAY
• DISGRACED EX-REP. AARON SCHOCK OUT AS GAY
• FORMER CONGRSMAN WH ANTI-GAY RERD ANNOUNC HE IS GAY: 'I REGRET THE TIME WASTED'

AARON SCHOCK, FORMER ILLOIS CONGRSMAN, COM OUT AS GAY

Rez/Chigo Sun-Tim, via Associated PrsAaron Schock, the Republin who rigned om Congrs 2015 as he faced qutns about his adherence to spendg l, me out as gay on Thursday, wrg a lengthy post on his webse about the challeng of growg up a relig hoehold and sayg he was wrong to oppose gay marriage. “The fact that I am gay is jt one of those thgs my life need of explic affirmatn, to remove any doubt and to fally validate who I am as a person, ” Mr. Schock also reerated that he had never watched “Downton Abbey, ” sayg was ed as a “dog whistle” to tease him about his Schock uld not immediately be reached for post at a moment when more openly gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people are nng for seats Congrs, and wng, rerd numbers.

Schock wrote the post that other gay people polics had told him that his announcement may not be well-received the L. “Where was I, they will ask, when I was a posn to help advance issu important to gay Amerins?

DISGRACED EX-REP. AARON SCHOCK OUT AS GAY

”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 15 of the New York edn wh the headle: An Ex-Congrsman From Illois Com Out as Gay. Aaron Schock has e out as gay — admtg has left him disowned by his eply relig fay who want him to go through nversn therapy. “I am gay, ” wrote the 38-year-old ex-Illois pol who rigned om Congrs five years ago amid claims he mised ernment and mpaign funds, wh feral charg only dropped last year.

“I unrstood that the teachgs of my upbrgg were pretty clear on the matter, ” he said of beg gay, sayg he avoid thkg about . Once office, he says, he “assumed that revealg myself as their gay ngrsman would not go over well. When he was fally ready to nfi his fay last Easter, photographs that emerged of him shirtls wh other men at the Coachella ftival “ma clear” that he was gay, he wrote.

While fendg himself agast all the charg ma agast him, Schock admted to one clear regret — beg agast gay marriage while office. “I n live openly now as a gay man bee of the extraordary, brave people who had the urage to fight for our rights when I did not, ” he wrote. Aaron Schock announced on Thursday that he is gay, explag his journey toward self-acceptance an emotnal, apologetic and at tim fensive statement.

FORMER CONGRSMAN WH ANTI-GAY RERD ANNOUNC HE IS GAY: 'I REGRET THE TIME WASTED'

“The fact that I am gay is jt one of those thgs my life need of explic affirmatn, to remove any doubt and to fally validate who I am as a person, ” Schock said. Schock’s sexual orientatn has long been the subject of speculatn and discsn LGBTQ circl, given his Republin affiliatn and anti-gay votg rerd.

He voted agast repealg the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” bill late 2010, which barred openly gay and lbian Amerins om servg the U.