The scandal caused by former-Congressman Mark Foley has been largely framed in terms of his personal failings. But we shouldn’t lose site of the connection between Foley’s repressed sexuality and the contradictory Republican agenda against gay rights. Foley himself was a contradiction. He split his time between entertaining alongside his long-time partner and upholding the Republican family values platform. He even voted for the Defense of Marriage Act.
One might claim that Foley put his responsibility towards his party before his own self-interests. This is really just bad faith. Any idea that would compel us to sacrifice our own dignity can’t honestly be called responsible. Yet this is what Republican policy towards homosexuals demanded of Foley, whose own conduct confirms his belief that, lacking the dignity of opposite-sex couples, homosexuals ought to pursue their sexuality as they would passing excursions.
Now Foley confesses he’s gay, an alcoholic and that he was abused by a priest. Still, the only revelation here is the surprising consistency with which many Republicans, including Foley, dismiss the possibility that gay men and women might embrace their sexuality in ways that are both positive and life-affirming.
Foley would have been better off voting against the Defense of Marriage Act and defending his right to love his partner. That would have been the courageous thing to do, but that wouldn’t have been the Republican thing to do. My bet is that former-Congressman Foley’s disdainful attitudes towards his and others’ sexuality are symptoms not of a struggling gay man, but a floundering gay Republican.
Jose Bernal
Eugene