We talked to the drag queen that confronted former Rep. Aaron Schock

For nearly a year, reports, gossip, and videos have swirled around former Republican Rep. Aaron Schock’s post-Washington life in West Hollywood, California.

Schock, whose history as a Republican lawmaker is checkered with anti-LGBT support for things such as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, has recently been appearing in LGBT spaces and situations. A video seemingly showing Schock kissing a man at Coachella went viral in April, and in June a video showing Schock tipping a male go-go dancer also made the rounds.

The material angered many who felt that Schock hadn’t sufficiently addressed his public anti-LGBT history in a way that could allow him access to the increasingly open and secure LGBT world. Josh Seefried, a noted LGBT activist and veteran wrote on Twitter at the time, “A person who worked against our community cannot and should not be accepted until acknowledgement [sic] of that wrong doing has occurred.”

Now, a drag queen says she attempted to hold Schock to account when he visited the gay bar she was working at last week.

In a video posted to Facebook, Jonnie Reinhart, who regularly hosts a karaoke night at LA gay bar Revolver, said that a friend, Ira Madison III according to Twitter, pointed out Schock’s presence last Tuesday.

“I immediately felt that it was my responsibility to say or do something,” said Reinhart, who said that as a drag queen, she felt a special obligation to confront Schock. “My job is to literally make people feel comfortable and in comes this situation, where clearly other people were aware he was there. There was a general elephant in the room,” she told Insider over the phone.

Instead of laying into Schock, Reinhart says she performed “F— You” by Lilly Allen with a special dedication.

“This song goes out to someone in the audience. And it goes out to anybody who votes against gay rights.”

Reinhart says she chose a song because she “didn’t want to make the night all about him.”

“I thought with the idea of signing the song that people would know it would be a solidarity thing, in a way that’s not completely calling him out.”

Reinhart says it wasn’t immediately clear how Schock reacted to the performance, but that after a friend of Schock’s came to start a conversation about it. Reinhart says that she quickly took the conversation to Schock himself.

“I went into it with the mentality of the debate, went up and shook his hand and introduced myself, and explained my feelings of him being there,” she said. Like many other critics of Schock, Reinhart believes that he needs to issue a public apology for his anti-LGBT voting record.

At first, Schock just listened.

Then, she says he told her his own story.

Reinhart says the conversation humanized Schock, but she says she still wants to see change

Since Schock’s last term in Congress, his own story has largely been told by other people.

Gay rumors circulated while he was in office, which he brushed off. Snickers followed after he resigned over a scandal that resulted from an office redesign that was reportedly inspired by “Downtown Abbey.” The revelation in-part led to an ethics investigation and federal spending charges that were officially dismissed last week after Schock agreed to pay $40,000 in back taxes and pay back his campaign committees $68,000.

In late 2018, a steady drumbeat of headlines rolled out, each providing new glimpses at what many saw as a stereotypically gay life. The first glimpse came when he was pictured with gay party promoter Eliad Cohen. The picture went largely unnoticed until photos and videos emerged of what appeared to be Schock kissing another man at Coachella, which became a national headline.

Reinhart says Schock told her that his family’s reaction was “very bad.” Unverified DMs that were released in August seem to corroborate this story, with Schock allegedly saying that he was still in the process of coming out to those close to him when the Coachella video went viral.

“Not exactly how you want your mom to find out,” Schock allegedly said in the messages.

Traditionally, outing has been perceived as a largely unethical. In Schock’s case, the LGBT internet has largely co-signed the check.

In The Daily Beast, Michelangelo Signorile wrote,”when it’s relevant to a larger story — and voting anti-gay certainly is — the media has a responsibility to report on the sexual orientation (or speculation thereof) of public figures.”

LGBT publication Queerty wrote:

While it is the position of Queerty not to out public figures, we make one serious exception when someone has actively hurt LGBTQ people or causes and then refused to own up to it.

If the photos are accurate, Schock is out enjoying freedoms won through the sweat and blood of a community he directly harmed at every step of his political career.

Reinhart agreed, saying, “When you’ve voted against gay rights you lose the privilege of discretion.”

“What I kept coming back to, was that I was at the bar mostly full of gay people,” she said explaining her decision to speak out. “No one was saying anything, that was really profound to me. We just can’t be silent. Silence does not equal progress.”

Reinhart says Schock explained his record as, in-part, stemming from the fact that he still identified and believed he was straight when he was in office. “He said that he did not identify as gay at that time, and it wasn’t until years later that he began to explore and understand his sexuality.” Schock seemingly echoed the sentiment in the leaked DMs.

Schock has yet to address any of the controversies from the last year and has not responded to repeated requests from comment from Insider, but Reinhart says that in her exchange with Schock, he revealed that he was “working on putting out a statement.”

For Reinhart, what Schock does next is crucial.

“Yes I empathized with him, I understand the things he’s done, but that doesn’t make them right, it offered me a perspective of where he’s coming from, just from gay person to gay person,” she explained. “It doesn’t excuse his silence on the issue at hand.”

“In my ideal world we could open our arms and have kindness for him, but only if he stands up and proves himself to be an ally.”

Have a tip? Email Ben Goggin at [email protected]