His 'leadership changed Mass. forever'
Ex-congressman Gerry Studds dies, By Bryan Marquard, Boston Globe Staff, October 15, 2006

Gerry E. Studds, who championed environmental, maritime, and fisheries issues during 24 years in the US House of Representatives and lent an eloquent voice to health and human rights matters, died early yesterday.

First elected in 1972, Studds entered politics as part of a generation emboldened by its opposition to the Vietnam War and turned his focus in Congress to issues close to the hearts of his constituents. A Democrat, Studds had been reelected five times when in 1983 he became the first member of Congress to openly acknowledge he was gay.

Subsequently he became the first openly gay candidate elected to Congress and was re elected five more times before announcing in October 1995 that he would not seek a 13th term representing the 10th Congressional District, which includes New Bedford, the South Shore, Cape Cod, and the Islands.

He publicly disclosed his sexual orientation after a former congressional page, then 27, said in 1983 that he and the congressman had a sexual relationship a decade earlier, when the page was 17. The House censured Studds for sexual misconduct.

Studds, 69, had been hospitalized after falling while walking his dog several days ago. He died in Boston Medical Center of complications from vascular disease, according to his husband, Dean T. Hara.

``Gerry's leadership changed Massachusetts forever and we'll never forget him," US Senator Edward M. Kennedy said in a statement. ``His work on behalf of our fishing industry and the protection of our waters has guided the fishing industry into the future and ensured that generations to come will have the opportunity to love and learn from the sea. . . . Gerry's work in Congress can still be seen in the towns and cities he fought for, in the constituents who became friends, and on the waters he worked tirelessly to protect."

but you should see the hateful things posted at FreeRepublic about his death.

They're astonishingly bold in speaking their hatred and bigotry aloud so forcefully - it's interesting how few of the more sane Freepers rein them in. This is hate speech I never would have imagined seeing ten years ago outside a freak-driven hate site.

Thank God it's dying, as America begins to regain its 9/11-damaged sanity.