Aidan Maese-Czeropski – Photo: Gay Sydney News via Instagram
Aidan Maese-Czeropski, the former Capitol Hill Senate staffer fired for allegedly filming and sharing video of a sexual encounter in a U.S. Senate hearing room, says the fallout from the scandal traumatized him, prompting him to leave the country and start a life anew abroad.
Maese-Czeropski, infamously known online as the “Senate Twink,” told Gay Sydney Newsthat the sex tape scandal led to emotional turmoil, requiring temporary hospitalization.
“Mentally, I spent a little bit in the psych ward after the fact because it was just… it’s overwhelming to realize and to know that tens of millions of people literally despise you,” he told the news outlet.
Maese-Czeropski later bought a one-way ticket to Cape Town, South Africa. While there, he met a traveler from New Zealand, who convinced him to move to Sydney, Australia.
“She told me, ‘Aiden, you should move to Sydney, you would love it there, you would fit right in, you could get a fresh start,'” he recalled. “.I love it here and I’m glad that I took that jump…because it is the greatest city in the world.”
The video of the sexual encounter was allegedly shared in a private group for gay men in the political scene, and posted online on a since-deleted, sexually explicit “alt” account on X.
It remains unclear who tipped off conservative journalists to the video’s existence, but the right-wing Daily Callerultimately broke the story that a Senate staffer had created the video, which showed a man bent over a conference room table in the Hart Senate Office Building, and naked and on all fours on a table where senators sit and ask questions during hearings.
Conservative influencers sought to identify the staffer in the video, ultimately pointing to Maese-Czeropski, who was working for U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) at the time.
After his identity was exposed and widely shared on social media, he was not only fired, but found himself the target of vitriol from people of all political stripes who were offended by his actions.
Maese-Czeropski said that being outed as one of the men in the video led him to be ostracized and effectively blackballed when it came to seeking alternative employment. He described himself as a “catatonic mess” when he bought the one-way ticket to South Africa.
“Everyone in D.C. knew me, and it was kind of gross and horrifying because I’m not someone who likes to be in the public spotlight at all,” Maese-Czeropski told Gay Syndey News.
Since moving to Australia, Maese-Czeropski has been able to find employment — which reportedly pays more than what he was earning as a Senate staffer — and currently sees a therapist and takes medication for post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I don’t have any shame in [seeking professional help] because when you go through something like that, it is just overwhelming and difficult to even comprehend,” he said, noting that he has prioritized outdoor activities and taking care of his mental health.
“I think that one of the reasons why the scandal wasn’t as traumatic as it could have been is because I was very depressed working in government,” Maese-Czeropski said. “Like, I hated my life. I hated my job. The pay was shit. I was making $38,000 a year. I didn’t feel like I lost anything career-wise when the scandal broke.”
Maese-Czeropski acknowledges that any sort of sex scandal would have been controversial and ruinous for his future employment in Washington, D.C. But he also believes the backlash he received was more intense than that received by his alleged sexual paramour because he was the receptive partner.
“I think no matter what, when you have something as salacious as sex in the Senate, it’s going to go viral regardless of whether or not it’s gay or straight,” he said in the interview. “That being said, I’ve noticed that when you have sex scandals, the passive partner tends to take more of the blame, which is why I got all these death threats, hatred, and the guy who was the top didn’t.”
Maese-Czeropski has embraced the “Senate Twink” moniker on X and other social media platforms, and has started both an OnlyFans account and a JustForFans account for those wishing to subscribe to the limited content he produces for the account.
“I got some flack when I first created my OnlyFans ’cause people were like, ‘OK, he’s washed up, why is he doing this now, who cares?” he said. “So I did get some hate comments then. … But it’s not just about the money…it’s also about my mental health. It’s also about my family and their mental health. I just needed a lot of time to process the scandal because it was very, very difficult.”
Maese-Czeropski said he would advise people who find themselves enmeshed in similar scandals to ignore the comments that they will inevitably be deluged with.
“You cannot be terminally online…people online will say crazy shit about you,” he said. “Just ignore it, touch grass, honestly.”
A new survey finds that many LGBTQ Americans -- especially transgender and nonbinary people -- have altered their lives in response to a wave of anti-LGBTQ laws and rhetoric sweeping the country, with many reporting serious harm to their mental health and overall wellbeing.
Conducted from May 29 to June 13 by NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel for the Movement Advancement Project, the online survey polled 1,055 LGBTQ adults nationwide, including 111 who identified as transgender or nonbinary.
Operated by NORC at the University of Chicago, AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel designed to reflect the U.S. household population. Randomly selected households are contacted through mail, email, phone, or in-person interviews.
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Wolf was arrested in 2024 on suspicion of using an anonymous Telegram account to exchange hundreds of videos containing child pornography with another individual whose phone was later seized and searched by the FBI.
The owners of Pink Pony, a new gay nightclub in Sydney, have apologized and vowed to change the club's name following backlash from the local LGBTQ community.
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