Debate shifts after Foley says he's gay

By finally acknowledging after years of evasion that he is gay, Mark Foley has altered the debate among conservatives and gays over his overtures to male pages in Congress. Some conservatives say House Republican leaders knew previously of Foley's sexual orientation and were too lax in investigating his actions for fear of seeming bigoted. Some gays blame Foley's personal problems on being so long in the closet while representing a party hostile to many gay rights causes.

''This is the problem with the closet: It's a terrible place to be, and it's got to be worse if you're a Republican,'' said Democratic representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who in 1987 became the first member of Congress to voluntarily make his homosexuality public.

As far back as 1996, two years after his election to Congress from a south Florida district, Foley was outed by TheAdvocate. Another publication ran a similar story in 2003, prompting a Foley news conference at which he denounced the report but again declined to discuss his sexual orientation.

On Tuesday, four days after resigning from Congress because of explicit e-mails to male pages, Foley acknowledged through his lawyer that he is gay. He coupled that disclosure with assertions that he had been molested by a clergyman while a teenager.

Some conservative leaders, who have been pressing the Republicans to oppose gay rights measures, seized on Foley's disclosure to criticize the House GOP leadership. ''They discounted or downplayed earlier reports concerning Foley's behavior—probably because they did not want to appear homophobic," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. ''The Foley scandal shows what happens when political correctness is put ahead of protecting children.''

Similarly, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, in an interview on Fox News, suggested that current House GOP leaders reacted cautiously to initial reports of Foley's e-mails for fear of being perceived as participating in gay bashing. Such comments angered leaders of national gay rights groups, who said Foley's behavior was reprehensible—but should not become grist for harsher attitudes toward gays.

Conservative leaders ''continue to try and dodge responsibility for their cover-up, instead opting to do what they do best by blaming gays,'' said Joe Solmonese, president of the gay advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. ''It is completely unacceptable, regardless of party or sexual orientation, for an adult to engage in this kind of behavior with a minor.''

The National Youth Advocacy Coalition, which represents gay and lesbian youths, said Foley should be investigated and, if warranted, prosecuted. ''Some may believe that this is a gay issue. It is not,'' the coalition said. ''This is an issue about protecting children from those who seek to do them harm.''

There are now three openly gay members of Congress: Frank, Democrat Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Republican Jim Kolbe of Arizona, who is not seeking reelection. Frank predicted Wednesday that the Foley scandal, plus Kolbe's departure, will create a difficult atmosphere for any gays, closeted or not, seeking to remain active nationally as Republican politicians.

''Now they're viewed as causing trouble,'' Frank said in a telephone interview. ''I think you can see a purge coming.''

Conservative gay columnist Andrew Sullivan wrote that he was among many in Washington who had heard that Foley was gay yet unwilling to come out. ''What the closet does to people—the hypocrisies it fosters, the pathologies it breeds—is brutal,'' Sullivan wrote on his Web site. ''From what I've read, Foley is another example of this destructive and self-destructive pattern for which the only cure is courage and honesty.''

Sullivan also asserted that many closeted gay men in Washington work for the Republicans despite what he described as GOP policies ''deeply hostile to gay dignity.''

The president of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which assists openly gay political candidates, said many of those remaining in the closet ''think there's something wrong with being gay.... From what we've seen of Mark's actions, he felt it was OK to be gay on the side, but not to be openly gay,'' said Chuck Wolfe, who has known Foley for many years. ''It was all on the sly.''

Among the gay activists who had been trying to out Foley was Michael Rogers, who runs a Web site aimed at exposing closeted Republicans whose political work includes opposing gay rights. "The conservative side is encouraging them to hide their lives from public view," Rogers said. "Had Foley lived his life openly and been proud of who he is, this never would have happened.'' (David Crary, AP)