Gerry Studds, 1937-2006

The New York Times' article begins, "Gerry E. Studds, the first openly gay member of Congress and a demanding advocate for New England fishermen and for gay rights, died early Saturday at Boston University Medical Center, his husband said."

Read that again. The bright light in the otherwise dark news of Studds' death is that The New York Times referred to Dean Hara as Studds' husband. Yes, they married in May, 2004, shortly after same-sex marriage became legal in the Commonwealth. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the Times tried to avoid gay issues altogether and writers were forbidden to use the term "gay." That changed in the very early 1990s and under new leadership they paper took a very different stance on the coverage of GLBT issues, even including same-sex marriage announcements. Nonetheless, it's very cool, imho, to see the first sentence of the article refer to his husband.

It's unfortunate that in what turned out to be the last couple of weeks of his life, Studds name resurfaced only in the context of the Foley scandal. He did good work.