I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the loudest opponents of gay rights are often closeted themselves.

And while I think it should be a personal choice as to whether someone should come out of the closet or not (because, really, it’s nobody’s business), there are times when hypocrisy needs to be exposed.  I don’t like preachers who warn us not to violate the Ten Commandments while fathering out-of-wedlock children while married to someone else (Looking at you, Jesse Jackson), and I don’t like politicians fighting to keep gays from having rights while being gay themselves.

Congressman Aaron Schock is the latest example.  He’s been outed by gay journalist Itay Hod  for being a hypocrite. Schock is a Republican who hides his identity from his constituents.  Hod argues that the media has an obligation to report this — not because being gay is wrong, but because the congressman is a hypocrite, lying to the voters, in the same way you would report a politician who fights against illegal immigrants while knowingly hiring them.

Schock will join a long line of outed people who fought against gay rights, and will probably lose his seat because of it.  After all, Republicans don’t like politicians who are gay.

If only he had merely cheated on his wife while claiming to be hiking the Appalachian trail.  Or had been caught with prostitutes while wearing diapers.  Or divorced his wife while she was in the hospital for cancer so he could marry the woman he had been having an affair with.   Those sorts of things don’t bother Republicans, as we know.  Mark Sanford, David Vitter, and Newt Gingrich are still respected members of the party.

But being gay?  Well, that’s unforgivable.