Aaron Schock, the disgraced former Republican congressman from Illinois, confirmed what most already knew on Thursday when he came out as gay in an Instagram post and on his website.
“For those who know me and for many who only know of me, this will come as no surprise,” Schock began. “For the past year, I have been working through a list of people who I felt should finally hear the news directly from me before I made a public statement. I wanted my mother, my father, my sisters, my brother, and my closest friends to hear it from me first.
“The fact that I am gay is just one of those things in my life in need of explicit affirmation, to remove any doubt and to finally validate who I am as a person,” he continued. “In many ways I regret the time wasted in not having done so sooner. …
Read the full text of Schock's lengthy post on his website and on Instagram below, along with a few initial reactions.
