My Life as a Gay Congrsman - POLITICO Magaze

Contents:

• MY LIFE AS A GAY CONGRSMAN
• 17 GAY SEX SNDALS THAT ROCKED AMERIN POLICS
• RERD 13 CONGRS MEMBERS INTIFY AS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL
• TAMMY BALDW, WHO IS GAY, NONTED MAR RUB ABOUT LLG SAME-SEX MARRIAGE VOTE A ‘STUPID WASTE OF TIME’
• EX-REP. BARNEY FRANK, GAY TRAILBLAZER, PRAIS HOE PASSAGE OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL

MY LIFE AS A GAY CONGRSMAN

Wily regard as one of the most telligent and well spoken members of the Hoe of Reprentativ, Barney Frank, a Democratic Congrsman for nearly 30 years and the first openly gay member of the Hoe, almost undid his reer 1989 after havg an affair wh Steve Gobie, a male prostute. Though I was a third term Democratic ngrsman om Massachetts, I had lived too long wh the burn of “the gay thg” to treat g out as a polil matter alone. I’d felt shame as I watched younger gay men and lbians nont the bigots openly wh a urage that I lacked.

17 GAY SEX SNDALS THAT ROCKED AMERIN POLICS

They remaed mted to the “le” that proment people should not be outed unls they had been enmhed a gay-related sndal, but they were unrstandably eager to break the story. I nsistently said no—I didn’t ny I was gay but voked their own nondisclosure prciple. His primary ncern was outlawg abortn, but he had followed the nservative movement’s anti-gay le as well.

His nial of his homosexualy was universally—and accurately—disbelieved, and he was feated for reelectn that year. In his memoir scribg his own gay life, he ced my attendance at a gay pri rally the pany of a iend whom he accurately assumed was a romantic attachment. No one readg uld miss the clear import: I was a gay man who enjoyed a media silence that he had been nied.

“Tip, ” I said, “Bob Bman has jt wrten a book that says I’m gay. When I had asked gay rights activist Steve Enan to take me to a gay bar 1980, durg Congrs’s lame-duck ssn, he was chastised by a senr gay polil lear for threateng my ver, thereby endangerg an important LGBT polil asset. I then explaed that I did not tend to announce anythg, but that I would answer hontly if a reporter asked if I was gay.

RERD 13 CONGRS MEMBERS INTIFY AS GAY, LBIAN OR BISEXUAL

If beg gay was no big al, people would reasonably ask why I announced . Askg if I were gay—even wh my permissn—would break the no-outg le and require them to expla why I was a one-time exceptn.

Office, turned on her tape rerr, and asked me, “Are you gay?

Robson had two reasons for beg so proprietary: It was his journalistic terrory, and he was himself a closeted gay man whom I had met at social functns D. (Inappropriately, the Globe later assigned him to the “society” beat, where he often mented om his closet a snarky way about other gay people. It started badly when an olr, nservative Democrat nonted me, plag that I had lied to him when he’d asked if I was gay durg my mpaign.

TAMMY BALDW, WHO IS GAY, NONTED MAR RUB ABOUT LLG SAME-SEX MARRIAGE VOTE A ‘STUPID WASTE OF TIME’

Alan Simpson of Wyomg, the Republin senator who supported my efforts to remove the anti-gay immigratn le, lled to apologize. The right-wg Washgton Tim, owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, enthiastilly add gay bashg to s regular nunciatns of me— which I took nsirable pri—but they were a mor exceptn. The headle across the top of the page read “Public Man, Private Life: Why a Congrsman Told of His Homosexualy.

” And the article scribed my “homosexual acquatanc” and my support for “homosexual rights.

EX-REP. BARNEY FRANK, GAY TRAILBLAZER, PRAIS HOE PASSAGE OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL

” By then, “gay” was the adjective general e. “Homosexual” was not explicly rogatory, but was the preferred term among those who wanted to mata some semantic distance om our e.