Former Congressman Aaron Schock comes out as gay

Former Illinois Representative Aaron Schock, who has repeatedly denied rumors about his sexuality, on Thursday came out as gay in an Instagram post and on his website.

"I am gay," Schock, 38, began.

"For those who know me and for many who only know of me, this will come as no surprise," he continued. "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. In many ways I regret the time wasted in not having done so sooner."

Read the full text of Schock's post on his website.

The former Republican representative from central Illinois was indicted on 24 criminal counts, including wire fraud, theft of government funds and making false statements. He resigned from Congress in 2015. As part of an agreement reached last year, all charges against Schock were dropped and his campaign committee pleaded guilty to failing to properly report expenses, a misdemeanor.

Rumors about Schock's sexuality were attributed mostly to his colorful Instagram posts, which he later set to private.

During his time in Congress, Schock scored zero on the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Congressional Scorecard, a measure of a lawmaker's support for LGBT rights.

In February 2016, TitanMen said it was willing to pay up to $1 million "if the rock-hard bodied Republican will agree to an exclusive contract to star in a series of hardcore TitanMen gay porn films."