Gerry Studds, Gay
Congressman
Who Served 12 Terms,
Dies at 69
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web. October 14, 2006
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Tory Wesnofske/Associated Press
Former
U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay person elected to
Congress, died early Saturday at 69. |
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BOSTON, -- Former Representative
Gerry Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, died early
Saturday. He was 69.
Mr. Studds collapsed on Oct. 3 while walking his dog because of what doctors
later determined was a blood clot in his lung, said his husband, Dean Hara.
Mr. Studds regained consciousness in the hospital and seemed to be improving.
He was scheduled to be transferred to a rehabilitation center, but his condition
deteriorated because of a second blood clot on Friday and he died about 1:30
a.m. on Saturday, Mr. Hara said.
Mr. Hara married Mr. Studds shortly after same-sex marriage was legalized in
Massachusetts in 2004.
Mr. Studds was first elected in 1972 and represented Cape Cod and the Islands,
New Bedford and the South Shore for 12 Congressional terms.
In 1983, Mr. Studds acknowledged his homosexuality after a former Congressional
page revealed he had had a relationship with Mr. Studds a decade earlier.
Mr. Studds, a Democrat, was censured by the House for having sexual relations
with the page. He acknowledged having sex with a 17-year-old male page in
1973 and making sexual advances to two others and admitted an error in judgment,
but he did not apologize.
Mr. Studds then went home to his constituents to answer questions in a series of
public meetings and interviews with the press.
He called the relationship with the teenage page, which included a trip to
Europe, “a very serious error in judgment,” but defended it as a consensual
relationship. The page later appeared publicly with Mr. Studds in support
of him.
Despite the official admonition, he was re-elected six more times. He
retired from Congress in 1997.
Mr. Studds’s case recently resurfaced when Representative Mark Foley, a
Republican, resigned after exchanging sexually explicit instant messages with a
page.
Republicans accused Democrats of hypocrisy for savaging Mr. Foley but saying
little about Mr. Studds at that time.
Mr. Hara said Mr. Studds was never ashamed of the relationship with the page.
“This young man knew what he was doing,” Mr. Hara said.
Mr. Studds told his colleagues in a speech on the floor of the House at the time
of the scandal that everyone faced a daily challenge of balancing public and
private lives.
“These challenges are made substantially more complex when one is, as am I, both
an elected public official and gay,” Mr. Studds said.
Mr. Studds was an outspoken advocate for the fishing industry and was hailed by
his constituents for his work establishing a limit for foreign fishing vessels
200 miles from the coast. After leaving 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, which sits at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay, after
him in recognition of his work protecting the marine environment.
In addition to Mr. Hara, Mr. Studds is survived by a brother, a sister and four
nephews.
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