A tremendous feeling of shock was felt as Rep. Chadwick F. Baker (D- NJ) was forced to resign from his lead chair position at the DNC. Caught in a bathroom stall with an unidentified woman, it seems that Chadwick had been living a double life, all this time. Outed as straight, or at least bisexual, or maybe genderfluid, pansexual or any other possibilities besides being a cis-gendered straight male, he is not the man we thought he was.
Fighting for gay marriage for the last 11 years, Chadwick had developed a very strong community of followers that respected his tenacity, strength and courage in the face of a bigotry and hatred from the Religious Right.
When pressed for a comment his soon to be ex-husband, Charles W. Baker said, “I can’t believe this. I really can’t. I feel like I was used for political gains. I mean, he really wasn’t all that available, emotionally, or physically, but I thought he was just really stressed out. I mean, have you seen our choices for president?” He walked away from further questioning, visibly shaken.
With this tremendous blow to the equal rights and civil rights movement, where does this leave them? When your lead gay rights activist is straight, it brings to mind questions like, do we take white people that support Black Lives Matters seriously? Is it okay to take diet and fitness advice from overweight people? Do we value the opinion of someone telling us to go see DC’s Suicide Squad if they work for Marvel Comics? These and many other questions will hopefully be answered in the next few days as more details are revealed from this shocking incident.