POLITICS
An Aaron Schock? Or Is It Schmuck?
After years of homophobia, GOP ex-lawmaker from Illinois states the obvious
BY MATT TRACY
Disgraced ex-Congressmember Aaron
Schock took a break from visiting
gay bars on the DL and fi nally came
clean about his sexual orientation
in an Instagram post on March 5.
“I am gay,” the 38-year-old longtime homophobe
wrote in the post. “For those who know
me and for many who only know of me, this will
come as no surprise.”
No surprise indeed.
The Illinois Republican’s announcement followed
years of suspicion about his sexual orientation
— including video of him making out
with a guy at Coachella and photos of him enjoying
himself at a Mexico City gay bar that
surfaced last year.
He claims he is coming out now because he
has concluded a years-long legal battle stemming
from his 2016 indictment on 24 charges
that included misusing federal taxpayer dollars,
wire fraud, mail fraud, and fi ling false tax
returns. The charges were later dropped.
Nowhere in Schock’s lengthy note was there
an apology for voting against the Matthew
INSTAGRAM/ @AARONSCHOCK
Two Republican leaders; one was acquitted by the GOP Senate,
the other had the charges dropped four years after resigning in
disgrace.
Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention
Act or for opposing the effort to repeal
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2010, among other direct
actions he took against the LGBTQ community.
During his six years on Capitol Hill,
the now-38-year-old also resisted the Affordable
Care Act.
A prominent gay Republican told Gay City
News that Schock had been strongly advised
at that time to support repeal of the anti-gay
military policy to avoid having activists out him
over the issue.
Schock did acknowledge that he had opposed
same-sex marriage, but he couldn’t resist adding
a disclaimer that Barack Obama and Hillary
Clinton also opposed marriage equality in
those years. He said if he had not left Congress,
he would support LGBTQ rights today “in every
way.”
“The fact that I am gay is just one of the
things in my life in need of explicit affi rmation,
to remove any doubt and to fi nally validate who
I am as a person,” he wrote. “In many ways I
regret the time wasted in not having done so
sooner.”
In his note, Schock recalled his faith-based
upbringing in the rural Midwest, fi rst in Min-
➤ AARON SCHOCK, continued on p.21
INTERNATIONAL
Tokyo Court Offers Some Same-Sex Union Recognition
Japan progresses amidst lawmaker resistance, popular support for marriage equality
BY MATT TRACY
The Tokyo High Court on March 4
ruled that same-sex couples have
the same legal rights as a straight
married couple, signaling a measure
of progress in a nation that has seen a boost in
support for LGBTQ rights in recent years.
The ruling involved a case where a woman
sued her ex-partner of seven years due to infi
delity. The couple got married in the United
States, though it is not clear whether that was a
key factor in the case or if the ruling would have
been different had the pair not gotten married.
The case originated in a district court north
of Tokyo, where a judge deemed that their partnership
had “merit as a common-law marriage
with legal protections.” The defendant was ultimately
ordered to pay the plaintiff $10,248 as
payback for the infi delity.
The defendant proceeded to appeal the case
to the High Court, arguing that there was no
legal framework governing same-sex relationships,
but the High Court affi rmed the district
court ruling.
“It was a relationship equivalent to that in
which a man and woman come together to lead
their lives in cooperation as a married couple,”
said Tokyo High Court Judge Hitomi Akiyoshi,
according to Mainichi, a Japanese news outlet.
The court also concluded, “A same-sex couple
is an agreement between two people, and
on that basis, it can be said that it bears the
same obligations to fi delity that a legally married
couple of opposite genders undertakes.”
Japanese news outlets did not specify the
full ramifi cations of the ruling on the status
of same-sex couples generally, but the development
nonetheless represented a step forward
for Japan’s queer community.
LGBTQ rights in Japan have lagged behind
thanks in part to conservative lawmakers who
have resisted opportunities to embrace queer
issues that have advanced in other parts of the
world. Marriage is still defi ned nationally as an
exclusive union between a man and a woman
and — like in the United States — comprehensive
non-discrimination protections on the basis
of sexual orientation and gender identity are
limited to certain areas, such as Tokyo.
However, there appears to be strong support
for LGBTQ rights in Japan. A recent poll conducted
by Dentsu Diversity Lab found that 78.4
percent of Japanese people between the ages of
20 and 59 support same-sex marriage rights
and 82 percent of folks in the same demographic
support Tokyo’s anti-bias law.
Queer rights advances have been seen in
some other nations in the region. The LGBTQ
community in Taiwan weathered international
resistance from religious groups and secured
same-sex marriage rights last year.
There was also a push by LGBTQ activists
last year to usher in same-sex marriage rights
in China, but members of Parliament squashed
that movement for the time being.
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