Gerry E. Studds
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Gerry Eastman Studds (; May 12, 1937 – October 14, 2006) was an American Democratic
Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...
from Massachusetts who served from 1973 until 1997. He was
the first The First may refer to: * ''The First'' (album), the first Japanese studio album by South Korean boy group Shinee * ''The First'' (musical), a musical with a book by critic Joel Siegel * The First (TV channel), an American conservative opinion ne ...
openly gay member of Congress. In 1983 he was
censured A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. In parliamentary procedure, it is a debatable main motion that could be adopted by a majority vote. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spi ...
by the House of Representatives after he admitted to a "consensual" relationship with a 17-year-old page.


Early life and career

Gerry Studds, born in Mineola, New York, was a descendant of
Elbridge Gerry Elbridge Gerry (; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 18 ...
, who was the 9th governor of Massachusetts. The son of Elbridge Gerry Eastman Studds (an architect who helped design the
FDR Drive The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Park ...
in New York City) and his wife, the former Beatrice Murphy, he had a brother, Colin Studds, and a sister, Gaynor Studds (Stewart). Studds attended elementary and middle school at Derby Academy. He attended Yale University, receiving a bachelors degree in history in 1959 and a master's degree in 1961. While at Yale, he was a member of
St. Anthony Hall St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on , the Calendar of saints, feast day of Anthony the Great, Saint Anthony the Great. The frater ...
. Following graduation, Studds was a foreign service officer in the State Department and then an assistant in the
Kennedy Kennedy may refer to: People * John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), 35th president of the United States * John Kennedy (Louisiana politician), (born 1951), US Senator from Louisiana * Kennedy (surname), a family name (including a list of persons with t ...
White House, where he worked to establish a domestic Peace Corps. Later, he became a teacher at St. Paul's School in
Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua. The village of ...
. In 1968, he played a key role in U.S. Senator
Eugene McCarthy Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...
's campaign in the New Hampshire
presidential primary The presidential primary elections and caucuses held in the various U.S. state, states, the Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, and territories of the United States form part of the nominating process of candidates for United States preside ...
.


Career in the United States Congress

Studds made his first run for Congress in
1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
, but lost to the incumbent Republican representative,
Hastings Keith Hastings Keith (November 22, 1915 – July 19, 2005) was a United States representative from Massachusetts. Keith was born in Brockton, Massachusetts on November 22, 1915. He graduated from Brockton High School, Deerfield Academy, and the Univer ...
, in a close election. In
1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
, with Keith not running for re-election, Studds won the 12th congressional district seat. He moved to the 10th district seat after
redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...
in 1983. Studds was a central figure in the 1983 Congressional page sex scandal, when he and Representative Dan Crane were each separately censured by the House of Representatives for an inappropriate relationship with a
congressional page A page is an occupation in some professional capacity. Unlike traditional pages, who are normally younger males, these pages tend to be older and can be either male or female. Workplace Pages are present in some modern workforces. American telev ...
— in Studds' case, a 1973 sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male. During the course of the House Ethics Committee's investigation, Studds publicly acknowledged his homosexuality, a disclosure that, according to a '' Washington Post'' article, "apparently was not news to many of his constituents." Studds stated in an address to the House, "It is not a simple task for any of us to meet adequately the obligations of either public or private life, let alone both, but these challenges are made substantially more complex when one is, as I am, both an elected public official and gay." He acknowledged that it had been inappropriate to engage in a relationship with a subordinate, and said his actions represented "a very serious error in judgment." On July 20, 1983, the House voted to censure Studds, by a vote of 420-3. With his back to the other members, Studds faced the Speaker who was reading the motion. In addition to voting the censure, the Democratic leadership stripped Studds of his chairmanship of the House Merchant Marine Subcommittee. (Seven years later, in 1990, Studds was appointed chair of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.) Studds received two standing ovations from supporters in his home district at his first town meeting following his congressional censure. Studds defended his sexual involvement as a "consensual relationship with a young adult." Dean Hara, whom Studds married in 2004, said after Studds' death in 2006 that Studds had never been ashamed of the relationship. "This young man knew what he was doing," Hara said.First openly gay person elected to Congress dies
NBC News, Oct 14, 2006
In testimony to investigators, the page described the relationship as consensual and not intimidating. Although Studds said he disagreed with the committee's findings of improper sexual conduct, he waived his right to public hearings on the allegations in order to protect the privacy of those involved: :"...I have foremost in my mind the need to protect, to the extent it is still possible given the committee's action, the privacy of other individuals affected by these allegations," said Studds. "Those individuals have a right to personal privacy that would be inevitably and irremediably shattered if I were to insist on public hearings...." :Studds said that deciding not to have a hearing "presented me with the most difficult choice I have had to make in my life." Studds was re-elected to the House six more times after the 1983 censure. He fought for many issues, including environmental and maritime issues, same-sex marriage,
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
funding, and civil rights, particularly for gays and lesbians. Studds was an outspoken opponent of the
Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the "''Star Wars'' program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic ...
missile defense system, which he considered wasteful and ineffective, and he criticized the United States government's secretive support for the Contra fighters in Nicaragua.


Later years and death

After retiring from Congress in 1997, Studds worked as a lobbyist for the fishing industry. Studds previously worked for two years as executive director of the New Bedford Oceanarium, a facility still under development. Studds and partner Dean T. Hara (his companion since 1991) were married in Boston on May 24, 2004, one week after Massachusetts became the first state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. The Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, which sits at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay, is named for Studds. In 2006, the Mark Foley page scandal brought Studds's name into prominence again, as media pundits compared the actions of Foley and Congress in 2006 to Studds and Congress in 1983. Studds died on October 14, 2006, in Boston, at age 69, several days after suffering a pulmonary embolism. Due to the federal ban on same-sex marriage, Hara was not eligible, upon Studds' death, to receive the pension provided to surviving spouses of former members of Congress. Hara later joined a federal lawsuit, ''
Gill v. Office of Personnel Management ''Gill et al. v. Office of Personnel Management'', 682 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2012) is a United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit decision that affirmed the judgment of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts in a lawsuit chal ...
'', that successfully challenged the constitutionality of section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. In a 2018 lawsuit, Studds was accused of sexual misconduct toward students at Saint Paul's School in Concord, NH, while he was a teacher there in the 1960s. In August 2019, Studds was one of the honorees inducted in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood noting LGBTQ people who have "made significant contributions in their fields."


See also

*
List of LGBT members of the United States Congress This is a list of lesbian, gay, and bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans who have served in the United States Congress. 26 members of the LGBT community are known to have held office in the U.S. Congress. In the House, 25 LGBT people he ...
* List of federal political sex scandals in the United States *
List of United States representatives expelled, censured, or reprimanded The United States Constitution (Article 1, Section 5) gives the House of Representatives the power to expel any member by a two-thirds vote. Expulsion of a Representative is rare: only five members of the House have been expelled in its history. ...


References


Further reading

*Johansson, Warren, & Percy, William A
''Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence.''
Harrington Park Press, 1994. pp. 156–7


External links


"Page Program Has Seen Scandal Before"
Liz Marlantes, ABC News, Sept. 29, 2006
Contributors to Studds' campaignsHis 'leadership changed Mass. forever'
nbsp;— '' The Boston Globe'', October 15, 2006
Gerry Studds; Gay Pioneer in Congress
nbsp;— '' The Washington Post'', October 15, 2006
Annoy.com Profile: Gerry Studds Video Interview
* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Studds, Gerry 1937 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American politicians Censured or reprimanded members of the United States House of Representatives Deaths from pulmonary embolism Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Gay politicians LGBT members of the United States Congress LGBT people from Massachusetts People from Mineola, New York Yale University alumni 20th-century LGBT people St. Anthony Hall