Today’s minisode is dedicated to a special person indeed and perfectly addresses a long-standing issue in the LGBTQ+ community. In March of this year, former representative Aaron Schock came out as gay. The name may be familiar as the politician made quite a name and a scandal for himself in the brief 5 years he was in Congress. And in fact, we have discussed him before in the past during one of our “I’m not gay, YOU’RE gay” episodes. Aside from the corruption charges for spending fraud, the former Republican Congressman has long faced rumors of being gay. And the word ‘rumors’ is an understatement as they’ve been backed with photos, video, and everything short of a confession from Schock. Yet for whatever reason, the politician did not see it beneficial until now to come formally out as gay. Perhaps the success of Pete Buttigieg’s campaign inspired him. Or perhaps he has found a new angle he can work. Before we get to his coming out statement, let’s learn a little bit more about Aaron Schock. He was born in Minnesota and spent the first several years of his life on a farm before his family relocated to Peoria, Illinois. In high school, Schock became interested in business and bought his first piece of real estate. He was ready to start his life and requested permission to graduate early but the school board denied his request. So upon his graduation, Aaron Schock decided to run in the school board election. He won his seat by a 57% vote and became the youngest member on the board. He would work his way up the board and become the young school board president in Illinois history. Even though the school board had blocked him from early graduation Schock had enrolled in his local community college anyway and took dual courses in high school and college. He obtained his Bachelors degree just two years after his high school graduation. And two years later he ran for Illinois State Senate at the age of 23 and four years later he ran for a U.S. Senate seat. Upon winning that election, at 27 years of age Aaron Schock became the youngest senator in the country. He was a rising Republican star and a darling of the Conservative right. There was certainly speculation about how such a successful, handsome, and fit young man would still be single. The rumors had swirled since his state election in 2004. But for many years there were just whispers. During his time as a U.S. senator Aaron Schock voted against extending federal hate crime law to cover LGBTQ+ people, he voted against the Employment Discrimination Amendment which would cover LGBTQ+ people in the workplace. The same law that was threatened by the Trump administration and recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Schock voted against the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which would allow gay and lesbian personnel to serve openly.  He voted to block funds that attacked DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). Instead, upholding the program that directly blocked gay Americans from accessing federal recognition of same-sex marriage. All of which should have come as little surprise as he took a hard, open stance against gay marriage during his campaigns.  In 2014, the Human Rights Campaign gave Aaron Schock a zero percent rating for his voting records on LGBTQ+ equality. Ironic as the man was currently living with his “male roommate” and showering the so-called roommate with gifts. A fact brought to light that same year when journalist Itay Hod revealed Schock’s roommate to the world and the fact that the anti-gay senator spent quite a good bit of his free time visiting the D.C. gay bars. Essentially, Hod outed the senator who had previously strongly denied the long-standing rumors that he was gay. In his coming out statement, Schock states that once this truth was exposed, he planned to come out. But then was faced with a more disturbing article. The Washington Post dropped an article in February of 2015 concerning a claim filed by t...