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| Rep. Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham (R-Calif.) decried the presence of ‘homos in the military’ on the floor of Congress in 1995. He matches many of the details of a story told by HRC’s Elizabeth Birch about a member of Congress who seemed to be questioning his sexual orientation. |
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
It began as a remarkable vignette about a virulently anti-gay congressman who
reached out in private to gay activists with questions about how people know if
they are gay. But last month, retold before an audience of nearly 200 at a Gay
Pride town hall meeting, a remembered encounter from eight years ago has raised
questions about whether the leader of this country’s largest gay rights
organization has on several occasions effectively outed a member of Congress.
The most recent occasion was a Gay Pride forum on June 3, where a panel of
gay rights leaders was addressing whether there was “a gay agenda.”
Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, began her
presentation, which focused in part on reaching out to gay rights foes, with
an example about a private meeting she and an HRC colleague had in 1995 with
an unnamed conservative Republican congressman who opposes gay rights.
The congressman startled her, Birch said, when he ushered his staff members
out of his Capitol Hill office, closed the door, and asked Birch and Daniel
Zingale, then HRC’s political director, just how it was that they came
to know that they are gay.
“You know, how do you know you’re that way?” Birch quoted
the congressman as asking.
In hushed tones, Birch told the audience that the congressman leaned back against
his desk and revealed that he was asking the question because he had “loved
men” in his past.
“[T]his guy’s got three tours in Vietnam, and there were a lot
of guns on the wall,” Birch told the audience, which laughed in response.
“Whips and stuff like that. … I looked at Daniel and I went, ‘Oh
my God.’”
Birch described how she and Zingale told the congressman how they and other
gay people struggle with their own feelings until they come to terms with who
they are and affirm to themselves that they’re gay.
“And finally, he said, ‘Because I’ve loved men,’”
Birch recalled the congressman saying. “And I said, ‘Was that in
a military setting?’” Again, the audience laughed, acknowledging
how awkward the conversation was for Birch and Zingale. “He said yes,”
Birch recalled. “He said, ‘Yes indeed, on the field of battle, but
I’ve also loved men.’”
Birch did not identify the congressman but said the meeting took place a short
time after the congressman created a controversy in 1995 when he referred to
gays as “homos” on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Media reports and other background facts indicate that Congressman Randall
“Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.), an archconservative from San Diego,
fits many of the details in Birch’s story.
The news media in San Diego reported at that time that in a speech on the floor
of the House, Cunningham decried the presence of “homos” in the
military. He appears to be the only member of the House to call gays “homos”
on the House floor at that time, and most likely at any time since then, according
to a review of news media reports and the Congressional Record.
Two gay Democratic activists in San Diego this week confirmed that Birch told
members of that city’s gay Democratic club a nearly identical story in
1996, and on that occasion directly identified Cunningham as the congressman
in question.
trong>Congressman denies meeting
Harmony Allen, Cunningham’s press secretary, said Cunningham never met
with Birch and never made any such comments about gays or his feelings toward
men.
“He has never had a conversation with that woman,” Allen said.
“The meeting did not take place.” Allen added, “He is a heterosexual.”
Birch has since refused to comment about whether she has met with Cunningham
and whether she based her story on Cunningham’s private comments to her
and Zingale. She said she never reveals the identities or remarks made by members
of Congress in private meetings.
Zingale said he had no recollection of a meeting with both Cunningham and Birch.
Allen said several of the facts in Birch’s story don’t fit Cunningham’s
background. Birch said the congressman in question had five children, while
Cunningham has three children, Allen said. Birch noted that the congressman
in her story served three tours in Vietnam. Cunningham, a decorated fighter
pilot and acclaimed pilot instructor, served just two tours, according to Allen.
“He never had guns on his walls,” Allen ...
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