QUEER QUOTE: Aaron Schock (R-IL) Outed (Again)

Another year, another round of gay rumors about a closeted, homophobic Republican politician. This time the politician in question is Aaron Schock, a.k.a. The Congressman With Abs, who is a Republican representative of the 18th Congressional District of Illinois. Schock has long been the subject of rumors about his sexuality, possibly because he is attractive enough that he catches attention of most gay men, and the fact that he seems more inordinately interested in his appearance than most politicians.

He is also a target because he has repeatedly expressed anti-gay positions and voted to enact those opinions as public policy.

Former CBS Reporter Itay Hod posted the following comments to Facebook, which will work as today's Queer Quote:

people always say, no one has the right to out anyone. that coming out is a private matter. i disagree. as you can imagine, not a very popular opinion. but bear with me.  

here's a hypothetical: what if you know a certain GOP congressman, let's just say from Illinois, is gay... and you know this because one of your friends, a journalist for a reputable network, told you in no uncertain terms that he caught that GOP congressman and his male roommate in the shower... together. now they could have been good friends just trying to conserve water. but there's more. what if this congressman has also been caught by tmz cameras trolling gay bars. now what if you know that this very same guy, the darling of the gop, has also voted against repeal of don’t ask don’t tell, opposed the repeal of doma, is against gay marriage; and for the federal marriage amendment, which would add language to the us constitution banning gay marriage and would likely strike down every gay rights law and ordinance in the country? 

Are we still not allowed to out him? 

As I have said before many times, I do believe in outing people. In this case, things have become even more interesting  since Rep. Schock responded to this Facebook posting going viral and the associated increased attention to his social media posts along with by making his Instagram account private.

I do not have a problem with someone outing Aaron Schock, but I do have a problem with reporting about someone's sexuality without using the same journalistic ethics that one would use to report any other fact. Hod is not reporting any first-hand knowledge that he has of Schock's sexuality (which is obviously difficult to obtain) but he also does not have multiple identifiable sources supporting the assertion that Schock is gay.