Congressman Studds comes out: September 15, 1983.New Jersey governor James James, person in the Bible James, in the Gospel of St. Luke, kinsman of St. Jude. The original does not specify the relationship. James, rivers, United States James. McGreevey is far from being the first prominent politician to come out amid a scandal. Following public revelations in 1983 of an affair he had engaged in 10 years earlier with a young male page, Democratic congressman Gerry Studds Gerry Eastman Studds (May 12 1937 – October 14 2006) (pronounced IPA: /ˈgɛri/) was an American Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts who served from 1973 until 1997. from Massachusetts Massachusetts (măsəch  `sĭts), most populous of the New England states of the NE United States. decided to come out. Advocate political reporter Larry
Bush wrote that Studds was actually the fifth member of Congress in five
years to reveal his homosexuality homosexuality, a term created by 19th cent. theorists to describe a sexual and emotional interest in members of one's own sex. Today a person is often said to have a homosexual or a heterosexual orientation, a description intended to defuse some of the long-standing ; but he was the first to respond by
"affirming his gay identity and discussing the difficulties of
balancing a private life and public responsibilities."
Studds told The Advocate that despite what appeared to be a disastrous situation, "I've never felt better in my life. Any person who has ever gone through the experience of coming out will understand that." |
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