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The Open And Closeted Lives of a Gay Congressman
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The son had spoken with Foley during the gays-in-the-military debate, but the conversations were cryptic. He didn't hold back in 1996. "I said, how could you vote against me, my family, your own self- interest?" Thorne-Begland recalled. He said Foley responded, "I could never compare any relationship I have ever had to the nature of my mother and father's relationship."
Deeply attached to his family -- his mother and sister played active roles in his many campaigns -- Foley cited his father's diagnosis with prostate cancer as the reason he abandoned a Senate bid in 2003. But the reality was, in a statewide election, that Foley's barely disguised homosexuality made him vulnerable to a conservative primary challenge.
Following a May 2003 local alternative newspaper report, headlined, "Why won't U.S. Congressman Mark Foley just say that he's gay?" the congressman tried to cordon off his personal life. He asserted that "elected officials, even those who run for the United States Senate, must have some level of privacy."
Foley's orientation was widely known across his district, and most voters apparently didn't care. He was reelected to a sixth term in 2004 with 68 percent of the vote, against nominal Democratic opposition.
Local Republican Sal Abruscato said he'd suspected for years that Foley was gay. "It's been around for a long time. It's one of the worst-kept secrets. I didn't care," the 42-year-old detective said.
Some voters were repelled. Joseph Hubbard, 49, who runs two golf courses in Foley's district, said he had attended a dinner at a local Baptist church with the lawmaker a few years back. He liked him -- but was dismayed about a year ago when he was told by a friend that Foley is gay. "Being a Republican and all, that's not kind of our agenda," Hubbard said.
But Foley's winning personality earned him broad support, including from Democrats such as constituent Barbara Yaffe, a retired schoolteacher. "Here was a man we thought was above average," Yaffe said. "He had a wonderful outlook on life and he did a lot of things -- only to find out he's all too human."
Staff writers Peter Whoriskey and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report. Whoriskey reported from Florida.
