A top staffer to Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren ( R-Plano ) was fired from his post March 19 after Hultgren's office learned that police had discovered the man shirtless in a parked vehicle with a teenage boy he'd met via the Grindr hookup app, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Dominic Provenzano, formerly Hultgren's deputy district director, was discovered in a parked SUV on a McHenry dead-end street with a 17-year-old in October. No charges were filed, as 17 is the legal age of consent in Illinois, but the teen later said to police that he and Provenzano indeed had sex in the car. Provenzano was put on leave then fired after the Congressman's office was made aware of the police report, however.
A relatively prominent figure in McHenry County politics, Provenzano is a Republican committeeman for Nundo Township and has served on McHenry County's board.
Hultgren is one of three members from Illinois' Congressional delegation to earn a "zero" on Human Rights Campaign's Congressional Scorecard, signifying virtually no support for LGBT rights. He consistently opposed marriage-equality while that issues was being debated in the public sphere, for example, and subsequently has come out in favor of so-called "religious freedom" legislation that would protect discriminatory anti-LGBT practices if they were performed under the auspices of the perpetrator's religious beliefs.
The Chicago Tribune's report is at trib.in/2GPJttu.