• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Body
  • Daily Resist
  • POLITICS
  • Travel
  • Music
  • Theatre
  • Film
  • TV
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Men
  • Marriage Equality
  • Space
  • Trans Rights
  • Books
  • Science
  • Gay Iconography
  • TowleREAD

Former Massachusetts Rep. Gerry Studds Dies at 69
Was First Openly Gay Person Elected to Congress

October 14, 2006 by Andy Towle

Former U.S. Rep Gerry Studds died early on Saturday. He was 69.

Studds_2Studds had been admitted to the hospital on October 3rd after he collapsed while walking his dog, his husband Dean Hara told the Boston Globe.

Hara said the reason for the hospitalization was a blood clot in Studds’ lung.

“[After being hospitalized] Studds regained consciousness and seemed to be improving. He was to be transferred to a rehabilitation center, but his condition deteriorated on Friday because of a second blood clot and he died at about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday. Hara, who married Studds shortly after gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts in 2004, said doctors were not immediately sure where the second blood clot originated.”

Studds represented Cape Cod and the Islands, New Bedford, and the South Shore for 12 terms. In 1983, when a former Congressional page went public with an affair he had with Studds ten years earlier when the page was 17, Studds came out publicly. Studds was censured after defending his relationship with the page as one that was consensual, but survived the scandal.

While in Congress, Studds fought heavily for gay rights, marriage, and AIDS issues and marine protection environmental programs. After retiring in 1997, Studds became a lobbyist for the fishing industry. The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, located at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay, was named for Studds when he retired from Congress to recognize the work he had done on behalf of marine issues.

Said Hara of his husband, the long-serving congressman: “He gave people of his generation, or my generation, of future generations, the courage to do whatever they wanted to do.”

Reactions…

Filed Under: Massachusetts, News Tagged With: Democratic Party, Gerry Studds, Massachusetts, News, Provincetown

Recent Posts

  • QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Files Impeachment Articles Against Biden as News Emerges She is Sandy Hook and Parkland Truther Who Claimed 9/11 Was Inside Job

    QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Files Impeachment Articles Against Biden as News Emerges She is Sandy Hook and Parkland Truther Who Claimed 9/11 Was Inside Job

    5 hours ago
  • One Million Moms Calls for Boycott of Cadbury Creme Eggs Over ‘Disgusting’ Ad Featuring Gay Couple

    One Million Moms Calls for Boycott of Cadbury Creme Eggs Over ‘Disgusting’ Ad Featuring Gay Couple

    6 hours ago
  • Thousands Demand Franklin Graham’s Firing Over Support for Trump’s Big Lie

    Thousands Demand Franklin Graham’s Firing Over Support for Trump’s Big Lie

    7 hours ago
  • Seth Rogen Calls Ted Cruz a ‘White Supremacist Fascist’ in F-Bomb Twitter Tirade

    Seth Rogen Calls Ted Cruz a ‘White Supremacist Fascist’ in F-Bomb Twitter Tirade

    8 hours ago
Previous Post: « TowleTech V.28
Next Post: Next Post »

Primary Sidebar

  • QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Files Impeachment Articles Against Biden as News Emerges She is Sandy Hook and Parkland Truther Who Claimed 9/11 Was Inside Job

  • One Million Moms Calls for Boycott of Cadbury Creme Eggs Over ‘Disgusting’ Ad Featuring Gay Couple

  • Thousands Demand Franklin Graham’s Firing Over Support for Trump’s Big Lie

Recent Posts

  • QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Files Impeachment Articles Against Biden as News Emerges She is Sandy Hook and Parkland Truther Who Claimed 9/11 Was Inside Job

    QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Files Impeachment Articles Against Biden as News Emerges She is Sandy Hook and Parkland Truther Who Claimed 9/11 Was Inside Job

    5 hours ago
  • One Million Moms Calls for Boycott of Cadbury Creme Eggs Over ‘Disgusting’ Ad Featuring Gay Couple

    One Million Moms Calls for Boycott of Cadbury Creme Eggs Over ‘Disgusting’ Ad Featuring Gay Couple

    6 hours ago
  • Thousands Demand Franklin Graham’s Firing Over Support for Trump’s Big Lie

    Thousands Demand Franklin Graham’s Firing Over Support for Trump’s Big Lie

    7 hours ago
  • Seth Rogen Calls Ted Cruz a ‘White Supremacist Fascist’ in F-Bomb Twitter Tirade

    Seth Rogen Calls Ted Cruz a ‘White Supremacist Fascist’ in F-Bomb Twitter Tirade

    8 hours ago
  • Moby Dick, Jonathan Bailey, Jill Biden, Proud Boys’ Joe Biggs, Bernie Sanders Meme, Lone Soldier, Gay CEOs, Nicole Kidman: HOT LINKS

    Moby Dick, Jonathan Bailey, Jill Biden, Proud Boys’ Joe Biggs, Bernie Sanders Meme, Lone Soldier, Gay CEOs, Nicole Kidman: HOT LINKS

    9 hours ago
  • Former FBI Director James Comey: ‘The Republican Party Has to Be Burned to the Ground’

    Former FBI Director James Comey: ‘The Republican Party Has to Be Burned to the Ground’

    12 hours ago
  • Lincoln Project Co-Founder Rick Wilson Says They’ll Go After ‘Shallow, Crass, Grotesque, Political Opportunist’ Ted Cruz Now That Trump is Gone: LISTEN

    Lincoln Project Co-Founder Rick Wilson Says They’ll Go After ‘Shallow, Crass, Grotesque, Political Opportunist’ Ted Cruz Now That Trump is Gone: LISTEN

    13 hours ago
  • Dr. Anthony Fauci: ‘I am Honored to Announce That the United States Will Remain a Member of the World Health Organization’ — WATCH

    Dr. Anthony Fauci: ‘I am Honored to Announce That the United States Will Remain a Member of the World Health Organization’ — WATCH

    15 hours ago
  • Pete Buttigieg Testifies in Transportation Secretary Confirmation Hearing: WATCH LIVE

    Pete Buttigieg Testifies in Transportation Secretary Confirmation Hearing: WATCH LIVE

    15 hours ago
  • Tiger King’s Joe Exotic Says He Was ‘Too GAY’ to Get a Pardon from Trump: ‘Boy Were We All Stupid’

    Tiger King’s Joe Exotic Says He Was ‘Too GAY’ to Get a Pardon from Trump: ‘Boy Were We All Stupid’

    16 hours ago

Most Commented

  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Footer

Copyright © 2021 · Log in