Adrian Blue writes for the gay newspaper the Washington Blade July 9, 2004:
…Not likely, say Mike Rogers and John Aravosis, the two men loosely heading an ongoing outing campaign on the Hill. As the date nears for a Senate vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban gay marriages in the Constitution, Rogers said the outings have picked up steam — from 13 documented offices to nearly 20 currently on a target list provided by Rogers to the Blade.
In addition to Tolman, Rogers and Aravosis, working in tandem but not together, claimed in the last week to have outed via the Web Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida.
While Tolman confirmed he is gay, the Mikulski’s office refused to comment on speculation she is a lesbian, something Aravosis implied last week on his site.
A spokesperson for Congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.) also declined to comment after Aravosis specifically asserted that Foley is gay on his Web site last week.
Both members of Congress have long been the subject of rumors about their sexual orientation.
Aravosis continued to defend the outing campaign.
“An acquaintance of mine, a Southern Republican, worked for a member who was not anti-gay personally, but he signed on to the amendment [banning gay marriage],” Aravosis said. “My friend quit. I’m basically saying, ‘You know what, you have a choice. It’s 2004. You can work for pro-gay Democrats, and now you can work for pro-gay Republicans.’”
Aravosis said he decided to target Mikulski after the 67-year-old senator, who has never married, declined for months to state her position on the Federal Marriage Amendment. The Washington Blade has made repeated requests for Mikulski’s position on the issue without a response until this week.
Within days after Aravosis claimed on his Web site that Mikulski is a lesbian, the Maryland Democrat issued a statement declaring her intention to vote against the amendment. But Mikulski’s staff declined to otherwise remark on any other aspect of the controversy, according to spokesperson Amy Hagovsky.
“A constitutional amendment is not about helping families. It is about helping George Bush get re-elected,” Mikulski said in a statement. “Congress has already spoken on this issue. There is a federal law — and state law in Maryland — that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. With our country at war in Iraq, we do not need a cultural war here at home.”
Signorile targets Mikulski
Mikulski was also targeted this week by gay journalist Michelangelo Signorile in the New York Press. Mikulski has been long besieged by questions about whether she is hiding her sexual orientation.
During her first Senate campaign in the mid-’80s, the Republican Party ran against her a conservative pundit named Linda Chavez — who was later nominated by President George H.W. Bush as Labor Secretary until she was accused of paying her housekeeper under the table.
Throughout that race, Chavez attacked Mikulski, a former Baltimore social worker, for her relationship with Teresa Marie Brennan, an Australian feminist academic and congressional aide who shared Mikulski’s home for two months.
Mikulski won the election by a wide margin, and in 1996 voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act. She avoided criticism from conservatives, but incurred the wrath of gay activists who confronted her later that year at a book signing for her mystery novel, “Capitol Offense.” Shortly afterward, her voting record on pro-gay legislation improved, according to activists.
“[Her orientation] is something everyone knows, and that gays and lesbians have put her back in the closet is shameful; it’s diminishing what people did 10 years ago,” said Aravosis, a former staff lawyer for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
Over in the House, Republican Mark Foley said in March that he would vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment — one week after his spokesperson said he would not take a position on the measure until it came up for a House vote.
Despite Foley’s FMA opposition, Aravosis purported to out Foley as well, taking him to task for supporting President Bush, who endorsed the measure late last winter. Labeling Foley as “our latest closeted gay hypocrite,” Aravosis said Foley made the list for putting politics ahead of his own community by “whoring for an anti-gay president.”
As in the case with Mikulski, rumors that Foley is gay had long circulated within the Beltway, and local newspapers in South Florida — including the Express Gay News and an alternative newsweekly — cited his long-term relationship with a Palm Beach physician.
