Posted on 10/15/2006 5:21:19 AM PDT by billorites
Former U.S. Rep. Gerry E. Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, died early yesterday, several days after being hospitalized for head injuries sustained while walking his English springer spaniel, Bonnie, in Boston.
Studds, 69, who salvaged his 12-term congressional career from near ruin in 1983 over a sex scandal involving a House page, was remembered as a devoted environmentalist and inspiration to the gay community for his openness and push for equal rights.
‘‘Gerry often said it was the fight for gay and lesbian equality that was the last great civil-rights chapter in modern American history. He did not live to see its final sentences written, but all of us will forever be indebted to him for leading the way with compassion and wisdom,” said his husband, Dean T. Hara, 49, in a statement.
Studds represented Cape Cod and the Islands, New Bedford and the South Shore for 24 years. He was censured by former Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. before the House of Representatives in 1983 for having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old House page.
During the scandal, Studds revealed he was gay in a speech to Congress. A month later, he stood defiantly on the House floor with his back to his fellow lawmakers as the charges were read against him during censure proceedings.
The Studds scandal recently resurfaced amid the firestorm surrounding former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, the Florida Republican who resigned this month after news reports that he sent sexually explicit communications to House pages.
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Newton), who announced he was gay four years after Studds’ disclosure, said yesterday his colleague didn’t let the scandal get in his way.
‘‘It was very important to see, for young people in particular, somebody as capable and talented as he be openly gay,” said Frank. ‘‘That gave a lot people the courage to say, ‘I can survive this business in being honest about who I am.’ ”
Despite the sex scandal, Studds was re-elected. After his 1997 retirement from Congress he became a lobbyist for the fishing industry and environmental causes. In 1996, Congress named the 842-square-mile Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
‘‘His work on behalf of our fishing industry and the protection of our waters has guided the fishing industry into the future and ensured that generations to come will have the opportunity to love and learn from the sea,” U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a statement.
Studds, who lived in the South End with Hara, fell unconscious on Oct. 3 because of a blood clot in his lung, his husband said. Studds regained consciousness and appeared to improve until Friday, when a second clot developed.
‘‘I will always be grateful to Gerry for the life we had together,” Hara, who married Studds a week after same-sex marriage was legalized here in 2004, said in a statement. ‘‘We truly were blessed to have what every married couple hopes for: to spend our days with the person we love.”
He went on to add that the water provides a great place to park your car.
Neither, the headline says that "Studds dies at 69". There goes your breakfast.
Tell me the elected Republican who has the stones to bring up the truth about Gerry Studds. They'll be on the receiving end of the continuing barrage of Mark Foley questions, but I'm betting not one of them will say a word about Studds. I'll go even further that if it's mentioned to them that Studds passed, they'll let it go with nary a peep out of respect for the dead. Yeah, the same respect for the dead shown to Nixon and Reagan. Grrr.
He also trolled for young butts to plow.
You don't have to pervert the sacrament of marriage to do that.
As another Freeper asked on one of these threads, "Do they bury him face down?"
In this instance, are there two geese or two gander?
We should call the family to find out so that we don't offend them by using the wrong term. That would be insensitive.
You can't get more honest than that.
LOL.
He probably had a falling-out (no pun intended) with them and that's why he died.
How did Rove do it? Perhaps we would be better off not knowing.....
Why do so many freaks hail from the northeast....(Kennedy, Studds, HRC)? Is something in the water?
‘‘I will always be grateful to Gerry for the life we had together,” Hara, who married Studds a week after same-sex marriage was legalized here in 2004, said in a statement. ‘‘We truly were blessed to have what every married couple hopes for: to spend our days with the person we love.”
This is the Foley substitute for the MSM.
This is their "forgive us" for tossing Foley under the bus.
They celebrate this pedophile and fail to point out foley's efforts to cultivate children for future sex.
The death of Studds serves as a powerful reminder of the two standards employed by the media. Since this death has the power to put the Foley situation in perspective you would think this would be front page news everywhere. Today it is on page c7, in the obits, in the Washington Post.
Leni
Hillary! is from Illinois.
Happens all the time I hear.......
My son and daughter-in-law live in the South End. It's a very "gay" area of Boston. My son, who his "gay" neighbor referred to as a J.Crew model, is constantly being followed by "gay" men. This neighbor was beside himself when he saw my son moving into their brownstone, that is, til he saw the wife.
As soon as he finishes his MBA program in Dec. they're out of there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.