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To: BurbankKarl

Tolman, a senior aide for the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, chaired by conservative Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, was about to become the first Capitol Hill staffer publicly outed through a campaign led by two activists.

20 offices said targeted
Not likely, say Mike Rogers and John Aravosis, the two men loosely heading an ongoing outing campaign on the Hill. As the date nears for a Senate vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban gay marriages in the Constitution, Rogers said the outings have picked up steam — from 13 documented offices to nearly 20 currently on a target list provided by Rogers to the Blade.

In addition to Tolman, Rogers and Aravosis, working in tandem but not together, claimed in the last week to have outed via the Web Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida.

While Tolman confirmed he is gay, the Mikulski’s office refused to comment on speculation she is a lesbian, something Aravosis implied last week on his site.

A spokesperson for Congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.) also declined to comment after Aravosis specifically asserted that Foley is gay on his Web site last week.

Both members of Congress have long been the subject of rumors about their sexual orientation.

Aravosis continued to defend the outing campaign.

“An acquaintance of mine, a Southern Republican, worked for a member who was not anti-gay personally, but he signed on to the amendment [banning gay marriage],” Aravosis said. “My friend quit. I’m basically saying, ‘You know what, you have a choice. It’s 2004. You can work for pro-gay Democrats, and now you can work for pro-gay Republicans.’”

Aravosis said he decided to target Mikulski after the 67-year-old senator, who has never married, declined for months to state her position on the Federal Marriage Amendment. The Washington Blade has made repeated requests for Mikulski’s position on the issue without a response until this week.

Within days after Aravosis claimed on his Web site that Mikulski is a lesbian, the Maryland Democrat issued a statement declaring her intention to vote against the amendment. But Mikulski’s staff declined to otherwise remark on any other aspect of the controversy, according to spokesperson Amy Hagovsky.

“A constitutional amendment is not about helping families. It is about helping George Bush get re-elected,” Mikulski said in a statement. “Congress has already spoken on this issue. There is a federal law — and state law in Maryland — that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. With our country at war in Iraq, we do not need a cultural war here at home.”


161 posted on 09/27/2004 11:40:02 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: kcvl

I think its time for new blood period. And how about someone in CA that gives a crap about the invasion going on. I am going to have an illegal immigrant lounge going up down the street from work pretty soon. I see people buying food with food stamps and driving away in Lexus SUVs.

It is madness...and I expect people like David Drier and Asa Hutcheson not to pay short shrift to my concerns.


169 posted on 09/27/2004 11:45:14 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
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