Disgraced Republican congressman Aaron Schock showed up at the West Hollywood gay bar Revolver last week and L.A. drag queen Jonnie Reinhart couldn’t let the visit go by without doing or saying something.
Said Reinhart in a video posted to Facebook: “I’m not a confrontational person. And immediately my heart started racing, and I was like, ‘Okay, what am I gonna do?’ I know a lot of people would’ve loved me to just kick him out, or throw a drink at him, or call him out on the mic or just do something really big. But I decided to share a message through song, and I went on stage and I announced, ‘This song goes out to somebody who’s in the audience and it goes out to anybody who votes against gay rights. And I sang ‘F**k You‘ by Lily Allen which was not a very subtle message.”
Reinhart went on to say that after the performance a friend of Schock’s came up to him and started creating a dialogue, so Reinhart decided to talk to Schock directly, explaining to the former lawmaker why he was angry about his presence and told him he needed to apologize.
“He listened and he thanked me for talking to him directly.”
Reinhart said that Schock shared his experience of being publicly outed and coming out to his family, which apparently didn’t go well. Reinhart also said that Schock is working on “putting out a statement.”
“I believe the LGBTQ+ community should be a safe haven for people who are cast out of their families, but when you’re a public official who has voted against gay rights, we’re not gonna welcome you with open arms until you prove that you truly stand with us,” added Reinhart.
Schock recently completed an unheard of deal to escape corruption charges including filing false tax returns, mail fraud, wire fraud, submitting false reports to the FEC, false statements, and theft of government funds, defrauding the government of more than $100,000.
In March, federal prosecutors agreed to drop all corruption charges against Schock (R-IL) if he paid back $42K to the IRS and $68K to his campaign and stayed out of trouble for six months in a deal known as a “deferred prosecution.” He recently completed that process.
The disgraced anti-gay Illinois lawmaker resigned from his seat in 2015 after questions arose about his alleged misuse of funds.
Headlines surrounding the former congressman have turned more personal in recent weeks after social media photographs showed Schock hanging out and traveling with various gay men. Schock has never apologized for his support of a federal amendment to ban same-sex marriage or his support of the military’s ban on openly gay service members. He has denied he is gay when asked by the press.
So Schock’s hypocrisy has been pointed out frequently in recent months, after photographs were taken of him with a group of gay men at the Coachella Music festival, he was spotted talking up various men at a West Hollywood pool, he was photographed putting money in a go-go boy’s briefs, he was hanging out with a popular gay Instagram “influencer,” and after a nude, sexual video turned up on Twitter.
An FEC filing from Schock in early June raised speculation that he was planning another run for office, but Schock has denied that is happening.
