"The Bitchy Gay Community" Responds To The Aaron Schock Apologists

Its been amazing to see some "journalists" come to the defense of the seriously corrupt and unethical Aaron Schock and argue that gays are being "bitchy" and "mean" to Schock and suggesting that we have been brutal on him because we "want him."  A pretty face and toned body does not automatically make one an object of desire - ok, perhaps it does in the straight world wealthy older men all too often have brain dead "trophy wives" half their age - if there is no soul or moral substance behind the veneer.  A piece in Queerty has a great response to the Schock apologists that is down right fun to read.  Here are some highlights:

Kirchick, referring to those who’ve taken issue with Mr. Schock, his extravagant spending and antigay voting record, writes the “bitchy gay community” is up in arms because of “rumors” that Schock is a closeted gay man and that the real reason many people have disdain for the chiseled, Ken Doll-esque congressman is because we all “want him.”

Really? We all want him? That’s a little presumptuous, Mr. Kirchick. Was there a poll taken? I remember taking a poll for CrossFit and I definitely got the one for not eating carbs, but I must have clearly missed the “Who Wants To Shtook Schock” poll. 

Our disdain for Schock has nothing to do with his alleged good looks. It’s because of his character. Or lack of it, to be precise.     It seems in this day and age, you can’t dislike anyone for honest reasons, such as a person’s character.

Now as far as me not liking Aaron Schock because I want him — child, please. I will personally stand next to Schock in a Speedo and go muscle to muscle any day of the week (except Sunday — that’s my “cheat day”). In fact, he could have all the muscles in Chelsea and WeHo combined, but the thing Schock lacks and the thing that most resonates with the “bitchy queens” is the soon-to-be-former Congressman’s lack of ethics. 

Now dare I say, that is the reason we do not like her… I mean, him.

Kirchick writes that Schock has voted against gay marriage, against repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and against the institution of harsher criminal penalties for hate crimes. A mere two sentences later, Kirchick tries to say that, “There’s no evidence that Schock personally discriminated against gay people,” which makes one wonder if he has even read his own article. Call me crazy (I’ve been called worse), but voting against LGBT rights, is a form of discrimination.

 

These facts alone are enough, more than enough, actually, for the “bitchy gay community” to not like Aaron Schock.  But wait there’s more.. . . .  Schock also billed the Federal Government for logging approximately 170,000 miles on his personal car that, when sold, had an odometer reading of 80,000 miles. So “We The People” also paid for over 90,000 miles on Aaron Schock’s car that were never driven. 

 

Kirchick and others can try and spin this however they want. The truth is, the fall of Aaron Schock is because Aaron Schock has performed less like an United States Congressman than a privileged party boy who is all show and no substance. 

This card-carrying member of the “bitchy gay community” and many others like me are not supporters of Aaron Schock because he hasn’t earned it. It doesn’t matter where on the spectrum of sexuality he falls — though evidently, it’s somewhere between rabid Downton Abbey fan and Katy Perry backup dancer.

Very well said (the author's image is below, so we see why he'd do a speedo contest with Schock!)

GOP Closet Case Aaron Schock Facing Questions About His Expensive "Male companion"

Aaron Schock's boyfriend??

GOP Congressman Aaron Schock's troubles about his lavish lifestyle and extravagant travels just keep on growing.  now, it seems that Schock violated House of Representative rules when he took Jonathon Link - Schock's "photographer - to India to accompany the congressman on the trip, but failed to disclose Link's name appears anywhere on the travel disclosure form Schock filed afterwards. There has been much speculation that Schock is gay and now, some are questioning Link's real relationship with Schock.  Schock may be a jerk, but Link - -pictured above - does seem to have some some attractive attributes even if they have nothing to do with photography.  Here are highlights from CNN:

Another week, another report about a possible violation of House ethics rules by Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Illinois.

The congressman traveled to India last August 24-29 on a trip sponsored by the Global Poverty Project, an international anti-poverty group. The group also paid for Schock's Dallas-based photographer, Jonathon Link, to accompany the congressman on the trip, the group's spokesperson confirmed. But Link's name appears nowhere on the travel disclosure form Schock filed afterwards, as required by House rules.

The National Journal first reported about the disclosure oversight.

Schock's office paid Jonathon Link $4,166 for "communications" in September 2014 and listed him under "personnel" in its quarterly expense records, making him an official staffer. It is unclear if that payment was for the services rendered in India and Link did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Schock, a fourth-term congressman from a reliably Republican district, has been under scrutiny over his use of taxpayer and campaign money to pay for flights on private jets -- including planes owned by key donors -- concert tickets and other entertainment expenses. 

He's also under fire for lapses in reporting some of his expenses and already has taken steps to correct or amend some of those errors. He has hired a public relations team as well as a pair of lawyers, William McGinley and Donald McGahn, to review the compliance procedures in his official office, campaign and leadership PAC to decide whether they can be improved.

Global Poverty Project spent $4,000 to fly Link from Dallas to New Delhi and to lodge and feed him. According to the travel disclosure form Schock filed, the group spent $5,000 on his travel, $525 on his lodging, $300 on his meals and another $389 on travel insurance and ground transportation. Schock stayed at the Radisson Blu Plaza in New Delhi at a rate of $152.03 a night and at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai at a rate of $159 a night, according to the disclosure form.

One can only wonder what next week's revelation will be!  Meanwhile, some on the far right are beginning to call for Schock's resignation.

Aaron Schock's 'Flamboyant,' 'Racy,' 'Ripped Ab Muscles' 'Lifestyle'

Things haven't improved for presumed closet case GOP Congressman Aaron Schock who continues to battle ethics charges and questions about his extravagant spending and "lifestyle" choices such as having a young gay looking "personal photographer" who travels with him everywhere.  Michelangelo Signorile rightly increases Schock's headaches by again looking at Schock's presumed gayness in a piece in Huffington Post.  Note the part about Schock reportedly getting caught showering with another guy.  Here are fun highlights:

For several weeks now, GOP congressman Aaron Schock of Peoria, Illinois, has been at the center of a great deal of negative media attention because of things he has seemed to be -- or is alleged to be -- hiding. 

There's the revelation two weeks ago of his allegedly Downton Abbey-inspired office, which Schock's press secretary tried to keep a reporter from writing about. (The press secretary, days after coming under media scrutiny for his attempt to block the story, resigned after his racist Facebook posts were revealed.)

There's also the sale of Schock's home to a former Caterpillar executive and political supporter for a price well above the market. 

And there are his myriad of trips, some to far-off locales on chartered planes and including a paid personal photographer, which are raising question regarding who paid for them. 

All of this has inspired ethics complaints against Schock in addition to the negative media coverage. But the one thing reporters are not talking about openly -- yet appear to be wink-winking and nudge-nudging about -- is the question of Schock's sexual orientation. This is glaring and curious. 

The possibility that Schock is gay has been discussed openly, both on hundreds of blogs as well in the traditional media. That happened both when Schock, who has voted anti-gay, set off lots of gaydars online and on social media (like when he wore white pants, a magenta gingham shirt and a teal belt to the White House picnic, or when he posed shirtless for Mens' Health) and after former CBS reporter Itay Hod wrote on Facebook that a friend of his, a TV journalist, had told him he'd walked in on Schock and the TV journalist's roommate coming out of the shower together. 

Even the Washington Post, in an opinion piece by Jonathan Capehart, openly discussed Hod's Facebook post, using Schock's name. 

More interesting is how the media runs from this story, refusing to investigate it while looking into all other aspects of Schock's political life -- yet the possibility that he is gay is part of his political life. Just as he's denied wrongdoing with regard to who paid for his office makeover or his trips, Schock denied being gay when I asked him in 2012 in the context of his anti-gay votes. He did not do this by saying, "I'm not gay," but by saying the question was "ridiculous" and pointing to a denial from years past, saying, "I've said that before, and I don't think it's worthy of further response.

The question is relevant because if Schock is gay, then he is a hypocrite, since he voted against the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" and has said he was against gay marriage and for a federal marriage amendment. There are few more stellar examples of past possible deceptions that relate to the current stories about Schock.

But whether it's intentional, unconscious, or coincidental, the lack of any overt discussion (or investigation) of Schock's sexual orientation, while wink-wink words keep popping up, betrays a lot.  

As I discuss at length in my next book, the media and many LGBT activists themselves often breathlessly talk about polls that point to increased acceptance of homosexuality and LGBT rights, as if we've nearly won the war. But when the media still views the possibility that someone is gay as, at best, something that would be too damagingly invasive to report on or, at worst, a dirty little secret -- even when it's relevant or interesting to report on -- then we have surely got a long way to go.

GOP Rep. Aaron Schock Spending Tax Moneys On Hot Male Personal Photographer

Last week was not a good week for presumed to be gay GOP Congressman Aaron Schock.  Between the racists Facebook posts by his now former aide and ethics investigations concerning gifts and the questionable sale of his home to campaign contributors, the bad PR was nonstop.  This week is shaping up to be not much better.  Wonkette is having a field day about Schock's boy toy personal photographer - Jonathon Link (pictured above) - who seemingly travels with Schock everywhere.  Here are tongue in check highlights:

My goodness, America’s Top Heterosexual Congresscritter is in the news so much lately! We’ve gone from Not Gay Downton Abbey office to gayest ethics complaint ever to racist spokesgoon having to resign for being racist spokesgoon, all in the space of a week, and apparently Aaron is not done Shaking It Off, because here comes more!

Politico decided that it needed to win some mornings, so they did their own profile of the congressman from Illinois, focusing on the things he spends his taxpayer and campaign moneys on, and MOSTLY we don’t learn anything we didn’t already know from looking at Aaron’s Instagram account — he takes a lot of trips, likes being naked — but there is one scoop we find very interesting, and that scoop’s name is Jonathon with an ‘O’, and he is Aaron’s Personal Photographer:

To keep track of all his comings and goings, Schock has hired a personal photographer. Jonathon Link, a former Dallas-area wedding photographer, now snaps shots for Schock, and both his campaign and taxpayers pick up the bill.

You can tell Jonathon is his personal photographer, because personal photographers pose next to their bosses, in pictures. This is the man Aaron bought with tax moneys to travel all over the place with him. They make for a cute duo, of a Congressman and a Jonathon.

Aaron’s remaining, presumably non-racist spokesgoons say it’s totally normal to do this, because Aaron is the biggest fundraiser ever, and apparently having a Jonathon around helps him bring in the big bucks:

Schock aides defended employing a full-time photographer; “what is spent on photographers is in line with what is raised as a result.”

FULL TIME. To be fair, though, maybe his Jonathon is a Jack Of All Trades, always ready to lend a hand with whatever needs to be done, you know, at the office or on vacation in Argentina or wherever, because really, Aaron goes A LOT of places, all of them essential to the well-being of taxpayers in Peoria, Illinois

It is also very interesting that Jonathon is referred to by the Politico as a “former” wedding photographer. His website appears to be up and running, and when you load it, it doesn’t give you a “404 ran off with congressman LOL” error, but maybe he’s too busy taking pictures of Aaron to get on the computer these days.

We don’t know if Aaron also has to buy a separate hotel room for Jonathon every single time, but we’re guessing that, since Aaron is a fiscal conservative, probably not, that’s wasteful.

Oh, also, Aaron has another ethics complaint to contend with, concerning the sale of his Peoria home for $925,000, to a political donor. SOME SAY that the purchase price was FAR above market value, which, if true, would basically be like a big, illegal, unreported donation. . . . Maybe the donor and Aaron were taking shirtless selfies together and Aaron said, “I need to sell my house,” and the donor was like “I want it,” and it was just one of those right time, right place things. Or maybe it was FRAUD STUFF.

Time will tell on that ethics complaint, of course, but maybe that’s where he got the money to bring Jonathon Onto His Staff, haw haw, get it?

Wonkette is definitely maintaining the tradition started by founder, Ana Marie Cox!  Love it!