AFA dances on Gerry Studds' grave
Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 08:02:24 AM PDT
I got an email today that seems to me another nail in the coffin of the right's claim to be the Family Values party. Here is the opening:
Dear Mark,
Former Congressman Gerry Studds of Massachusetts died last week. Here is the account of his death as reported by Associated Press.
"Studds died at Boston Medical Center several days after he collapsed while walking his dog, his husband said."
On November 7, voters in Wisconsin will go to the polls to vote on a constitutional amendment banning homosexual marriage. If the constitutional amendment is defeated, your children will grow up being taught to use "his husband" or "her wife."
I'm sure that these dangerous pronouns will usher in the end of civilization.
Studds's spouse 1st denied U.S. death benefits because he's gay
Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 05:02:44 PM PDT
[This diary edited for copyright considerations. All diarists are asked to please read and follow the diary guidelines.]
From the AP:
For the first time, the federal government is denying death benefits to the spouse of a congressman because he is gay.
Former Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass., who became the first openly gay member of Congress when his homosexuality was exposed during a teenage page sex scandal, died early Saturday. He was 69. In 2004 Studds married Dean Hara, 48, after gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts.
Hara, unlike the spouses of other members of Congress who have died, won't be receiving any portion of Studds' estimated annual $114,337 pension. The 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act blocks the federal government from recognizing the 2004 marriage between Studds and Hara.
Peter Graves, a spokesman for U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which administers the congressional pension program under federal law, said same sex partners are not recognized as spouses for any marriage related benefits.
I don't have anything good to add to this - we can thank Clinton for this bigotry just as much as Bush - perhaps more.
Nonfamily Families
Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 02:41:01 PM PDT
I haen't been posting as much, because I think I've been experiencing low-grade burnout, among other things lately. I'm also realizing that my blog has been a "one man shop" from the beginning, and I'm starting to envy those who are part of established group blogs
That said, there are still plenty of thing that get me back to blogging. Like this item I saw posted by Michael at Gay Orbit. In the QueerlyKos round-up, I mentioned the passing of Gerry Studd, the first openly gay member of congress. Well, it turns out that Studds' husband can't inherit his pension.
Closet Case: Gerry Studds vs. Mark Foley
Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 11:29:41 AM PDT
In the last month before his death, openly gay former congressman Gerry Studds was thrust into the media spotlight in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal. Studds was compared to Foley (although Studds admitted to actually having sex with a 17 year old page.) Both Foley and Studds have been branded pedophiles.
A pedophile is defined as an adult who is sexually attracted to young children. In our society, where teenagers are sexualized in every advertisement in every medium, it's not surprising or unusual that a normal adult would find a sexually mature teen attractive.
The biggest difference between Foley and Studds is the closet. Watch this Gerry Studds interview with Annoy.com's Clinton Fein, and listen to the degree of self-awareness vs. Foley in hiding in rehab.
I'd like to speak up for Gerry Studds
Sun Oct 15, 2006 at 09:17:18 AM PDT
Former Rep. Gerry (pronounced G(err)ry or Gary) Studds died yesterday from complications from a blood clot and vascular disease. Gerry has been used in the past few weeks, during the Mark Foley fiasco, as the example of the Democrat who also sexually abused congressional pages in the past. It was disclosed in 1983 by a former page then 27, that he had an affair with Studds when the page was 17.
Gerry Studds, Dem from Massachusetts, dead at 69
Sat Oct 14, 2006 at 06:55:24 AM PDT
Gerry Studds, a democrat from Massachusetts and the first openly gay man elected to Congress has died, according to MSNBC. He was 69. He served from 1973-1997.
Studds, Crane and Foley - Then and Now
Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 12:45:05 PM PDT
In the early 1980s two House Members, Gerry Studds (D-MA) and Daniel Crane (R-IL), were accused of sexual misconduct with house pages. House Speaker Tip O'Neill (D-MA) fully investigated the scandal, appointing special counsel Joseph Califano Jr. to investigate the matter for the House Ethics Committee.
Courtesy Justin Rood TPM Muckraker
For Last Page Scandal, Probe Was Independent -- and Massive
From the Congressional Record July 20, 1983 (.pdf)
In all, the special counsel's Office has conducted some 700 interviews, taken more than 125 depositions covering more than 6,000 transcript pages, tried to contact every House page who served since September 1979 and dozens who served earlier, traveled almost 100,000 miles to more than 50 cities, and devoted more than 50,000 hours of staff time to this investigation.
Republican bloggers misremember the 83 page scandal
Tue Oct 03, 2006 at 08:39:32 PM PDT
Today, Jim Kouri at the Blog Urban Elephants got a link from HuffPo.
Despite his claim that the Mark Foley saga demonstrates a "double standard" on the part of Democrats and the news media, he never actually demonstrates the claim.
He writes about the 1983 scandal when Democrat Gerry Studds and Republican Dan Crane were censured for having sex with pages--Studds with a male. Unfortunately for Kouri, he not only fails to make a point, he also gets things just plain wrong.
The Foley Case: When a winger points to Gerry Studds, point to Dan Crane
Sat Sep 30, 2006 at 11:06:10 AM PDT
Wingers are busy pointing to the case of
Gerry Studds as an example of where Democrats excused the conduct of a congressman's interactions with an underaged page while Republicans forced Foley to resign.
Well, once again, Republicans conveniently ignore history and the page scandal that enveloped Dan Crane at the same time Studds' conduct became public (1982).
Crane was accused of having sex with an underaged female page. Crane admitted that he had sex with the girl. And, of course, the obvious kicker...
Republicans DID NOT ask Crane to resign. Rather, he was defeated for re-election in 1984.
So the next time one of these lying wingers trots out the tired, "If Foley was a Democrat, he probably would have been rewarded with a better committee position. Look at Gerry Studds!"
Ask them about Dan Crane. I guess it was all okay because he had sex with a girl instead of a boy.
Jeez...
