http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15260256/
First openly gay person elected to Congress dies
Former Mass. Rep. Gerry Studds had a blood clot in his lung, husband
says
Updated: 11:04 a.m. ET Oct. 14, 2006
BOSTON - Former U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay person
elected to Congress, died early Saturday at Boston Medical Center,
several days after he collapsed while walking his dog, his husband said.
Studds fell unconscious Oct. 3 because of what doctors later determined
was a blood clot in his lung, Dean Hara said.
Studds regained consciousness, remained in the hospital, and seemed to
be improving. He was scheduled to be transferred to a rehabilitation
center, but his condition deteriorated Friday and he died at about 1:30
a.m. Saturday, Hara said.
Hara, who married Studds shortly after gay marriage was legalized in
Massachusetts in 2004, said Studds was a pioneer who gave courage to gay
people everywhere by winning re-election after publicly acknowledging
his homosexuality.
“He gave people of his generation, or my generation, of future
generations, the courage to do whatever they wanted to do,” he said.
Studds was first elected in 1972 and represented Cape Cod and the
Islands, New Bedford, and the South Shore for 12 Congressional terms. He
retired from Congress in 1997.
In 1983, Studds acknowledged his homosexuality after a former
Congressional page revealed he’d had a relationship with Studds a decade
earlier.
Studds 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 did not apologize.
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Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
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