Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us In, Mark Foley

by Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Beyond Chron (reposted)

Thu, Oct 5, 2006 7:54AM

Former Congressmember Mark Foley is finally out of the closet. He’s even saying that he’s gay. How unfortunate for the queer community that he didn’t come out when he could’ve done us some good. Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned after word leaked out about sexually explicit emails he sent to a 16-year-old Congressional page, who happened to be male. It’s a story we’ve heard before: Over the years, Congressmembers of all sexual persuasions have been caught with teenage pages or prostitutes. A former president even got caught with a female intern.

Foley’s situation is a bit different. He never had sex with the teen. He also headed up the Congressional committee that deals with “child predators.” He was the guy in charge of protecting underage kids from people like himself. Talk about who’s guarding the hen house.

Foley had an interesting relationship with the queer community. In 1994 when he first got into office, his voting record on queer issues was dismal. Then some South Florida queer activists threatened to out him. He should’ve just come out, but instead he held a press conference and denied that he was gay. His voting record improved enough that the Human Rights Campaign, a national queer rights group, endorsed him. Still, he continued denying who he really was.

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