What’s This Gay Iraq Vet Doing Running for Congress?

Freshman Republican Congressman Aaron Shock may have the best abs on The Hill, but he’s also a lively gay marriage foe. Know what that means? We need a hotter freshman congressman — who actually likes our kind — to drool over!

Enter 28-year-old Anthony Woods, an army brat who’s running in a special election this fall to become the new congressman from California’s 10th Congressional District (an area in Northern California between San Francisco and Sacramento), a post opened by Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher leaving for a gig as under secretary of state for arms control and international security. What’s notable about Woods, aside from his staunch pro-LGBT stance?

He’s a West Point grad who served two tours in Iraq (and was awarded a bronze star) before being kicked out for Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Some six years into the military, “Woods said his personal belief system prompted him to disclose that he is gay to his commanding officer last summer,” reports the Washington Blade. After an investigation into his gay ways, he was discharged last December — and stuck with a $35,000 bill for his graduate school at Harvard after the military says he broke his contract to serve for five more years in exchange for tuition! This, after Woods was selected to give the graduate English address at Harvard’s Commencement.

So why vote for Woods? “You look at a number of issues and I realized they’re very personal for me. And I think I can come into Congress, come to Washington, D.C., with a lot of personal experience there. So I felt that I had a responsibility to step up to the plate, come home and run.”

What are his chances of winning? Well, it’s an uphill battle in the Democratic-leaning region. Fellow Dems California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, State Sen. Mark Desaulnier, and State Assembly member Joan Buchanan have all said they’re in this ($1 million) race too.