Here it is, freshly updated for 2011: The Gay Conservatives' Hall of Shame. Entry into the distinguished membership of the Gay Conservatives' Hall of Shame requires the nominee to have a prominent public life, the nominee's position of public prominence must be build in part on a proud record of loud public pronouncements against civil rights for people who are gay, and the nominee has demonstrated a desire to keep private their own personal enjoyment in participating in gay sex acts. We are accepting nominees all the time so if you feel you know someone who qualifies for the Hall of Shame, please send us your nominations.
After reading through this, you'll understand why conservatives hate gay people.
The Gay Conservatives' Hall of Shame
Bob Allen R; Fl
Bob Allen served as a republican member of the Florida state House of Representatives from 2000 – 2007. Soon after taking office in 2001, Allen was one of 21 Florida legislators to sign Gov. Jeb Bush's friend-of-the-court brief supporting the state's ban on gays adopting children. Also in 2001, he co-sponsored an unsuccessful bill that would have enhanced penalties for "offenses involving unnatural and lascivious acts" such as indecent exposure.
In 2007, Rep. Allen approached a black man in a public park restroom, and offered to perform oral sex on the man and give him $20. The man turned out to be an undercover police officer, and he promptly arrested Allen. In his defense, Allen said that he feared large black men, and was worried that the officer was going to rob him. He was found guilty and sentenced to probation and a fine. He later resigned from the Florida House of Representatives.
Roy Ashburn – R: Calif
A republican member of the California senate since 2002, serving the 18th district. As senator, Ashburn has voted against every gay rights measure that came before the State Senate since taking office, though all measures subsequently passed. In March of 2010, Ashburn was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving while operating a state-owned vehicle. The Senator, with an unidentified male passenger, was pulled over in Sacramento shortly after leaving Faces, a Sacramento gay nightclub. Ashburn's blood alcohol content was measured at 0.14%. In response to accusations arising following the arrest, Ashburn admitted publicly that he is gay in an interview on KERN radio. He explained his voting record by saying that he believes "that my responsibility is to my constituents.", but declined to respond when asked during the interview whether he personally agreed with votes he made on gay rights issues.
Robert Bauman – R; Md
Elected as republican member of the US House of Representatives in 1973. In Congress, Bauman established a reputation as a staunch conservative, often criticizing the state of morality in the United States. He was a founding member of several conservative activist groups, including and the American Conservative Union, where he served as national chairman. He was a vociferous opponent of gay rights and a member of the Jesse Helms wing of the GOP. Bauman lost his bid for re-election in 1980, after he was arrested and charged with soliciting sex from a 16-yr old male prostitute. He claimed alcoholism as a defense, and his legal charges were dropped after he successfully completed rehab (for alcoholism, not homosexuality).
Roy Cohn
Roy Cohn was a conservative lawyer, and chief counsel to the Joseph McCarthy-led Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Cohn was well-known for his aggressive questioning of suspected Communists. As a prominent attorney in New York City, Cohn's client list included Donald Trump, John Gotti, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and the New York Yankees. In the 1960s, he became a member of the John Birch Society, and served as an ad hoc advisor to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
In 1986, the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court disbarred Cohn for unethical and unprofessional conduct, including misappropriation of clients' funds, lying on a bar application, and pressuring a client to amend his will. This action was taken after Cohn entered the hospital room of a dying and comatose Lewis Rosenstiel, a multi-millionaire, forced a pen to his hand and lifted it to the will in an attempt to make himself and his grand-daughter beneficiaries to the fortune. This “signature” was ruled invalid in court. Cohn lost his law license during the last month of his life. At that time, National Review senior editor Jeffrey Hart referred to him as "an ice-cold sleaze."
Mr. Cohn’s homosexuality was an open secret in the McCarthy-era Washington, and during his years in New York City. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1984; Cohn died of AIDS-related complications of AIDs in 1986.
Larry Craig – R; Idaho
Larry Craig was a member of the US House of Representatives for the 1st District of Idaho from 1981 to 1991, after which he continued to serve Idaho in the US Senate for 18 years until 2009. As a representative, Craig was accused by other un-named congressmen of using cocaine and having sex with underage male congressional pages. Rep. Craig denied the allegations. As a member of the House Ethics Committee, Craig advocated for severe punishment of fellow gay congressman Barney Frank, when Frank's live-in boyfriend was discovered to be involved in a prostitution ring. As a senator, Larry Craig had tough words for Pres. Clinton about the Monica Lewinsky scandal: “The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy - a naughty boy. I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy." Craig was a co-sponsor of the 2008 Federal Marriage Amendment, barring extension of civil rights to same-sex unions. He voted against the Hate Crimes Act of 2007, which extended hate-crime protections to cover sexual orientation. .
Sen. Craig was famously arrested in 2007 for soliciting sex acts with an undercover agent in the men's restroom of the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, and pled guilty to all charges. He later attempted to retract his guilty plea in court and failed. Despite the guilty verdict, and Sen. Craig’s own pledge to resign, he only left the Senate when his term expired in 2009.
Joey DiFatta – R; Lou
Joey DiFatta was a republican member of the St. Bernard’s Parish council, and served as chairman of the Louisiana GOP state Executive Committee. In 2007, while running in the 1st district Senate campaign, Councilman DiFatta admitted has been stopped twice since 1996 for suspicion of engaging in lewd behavior in public restrooms in Jefferson Parish. DiFatta said he had done nothing wrong and that he had never been arrested. Police in Jefferson Parish reported they had twice detained Councilman DiFatta, once for a peeping-tom incident in a restroom, and once for a toe-tapping incident involving an under-cover officer in a mall restroom, but no arrests resulted. In Oct. of that year, hours before the story was to hit the front pages of the Louisiana Time-Picayune, DiFatta called the paper to announce he was suspending his senate campaign, because he had been having chest pains and "might have had a minor heart attack in the past few days".
Mark Foley – R; Fl
Mark Foley was a republican member of the US House of Representatives, serving Florida’s 14th district, from 1994 to 2006. In the House, Foley was one of the foremost opponents of child pornography. He introduced a bill, coined the "Child Modeling Exploitation Prevention Act of 2002" to outlaw web sites featuring sexually suggestive images of preteen children. Foley had served as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, in which position he wrote legislation to change federal sex offender laws, which was signed it into law by Pres. GW Bush as part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.
In 2006, ABC News reported that under-age male pages working in congress were willing to make public the inappropriate advances they had received from Rep Foley going back ten years. Some of these inappropriate contacts were in the form of sexually suggestive and graphic Instant Messages, and were later released on the internet. Federal authorities said the explicit messages could result in Foley's prosecution, under some of the same laws he helped to enact. Foley denied any physical contact with minors, but resigned his position in the House of Representatives, and disappeared into rehab center for alcohol-related problems. His lawyer later released a statement that “Mark Foley wants you to know he is a gay man.”
James Dale Guckert -
James Dale Guckert is a conservative columnist and former White House reporter for Talon News. While working for Talon News between 2002 and 2005, Mr Guckert, working under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon, routinely obtained White House security passes to attend presidential briefings and press conferences, although he applied for the passes under a fake name, had no previous journalistic experience, did not qualify for a congressional press pass, and had no security screening. The fact that a person with a fake ID and no security clearance was regularly allowed in the same room as the president of the US during a time of heightened security measures escaped attention, until it was noticed by other members of the press that the president would seek out Guckert during press conferences for his friendly soft-ball questions. It was then learned that Guckert was already known in certain circles for his work before Talon News with a number of homosexual escort services and the multitude of gay-themed nude photos of him available on the internet. Guckert resigned from Talon News in 2005, and worked for a time as a reporter for the Washington Blade, where he confirmed that he is gay. He has since written a book about his adventures as a White House correspondent, and is desperately working to remove the many nude photographs of him that can still be found on the internet.
Ted Haggard –
Ted Haggard was founder, former pastor, and head of the evangelical New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo.; he was also president of the National Association of Evangelicals from 2003 to 2006. He was very influential in evangelical and conservative political circles, participating in weekly conference calls with then-president George W. Bush's White House, and was a welcomed visitor to the Bush White House. Pastor Haggard spoke and met regularly with the likes of James Dobson, Pat Roberson, and Jerry Falwell.
In 2006, a male escort and masseur Mike Jones claimed that Haggard had for a period of three years paid him to have sex with Pastor Haggard, and on occasion, was given money to purchase methamphetamine for Pastor Haggard. Jones said he felt to need to come forward with these charges when he learned Pastor Haggard's political support for Colorado Amendment 43, that sought to ban same-sex marriage in the state of Colorado: “I had to expose the hypocrisy. He is in the position of influence of millions of followers, and he's preaching against gay marriage. But behind everybody's back he's doing what he's preached against...It made me angry that here’s someone preaching against gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex.” After initially denying Mr. Jones claims, eventually Pastor Haggard eventually admitted both that he used methamphetamine and carried on a long relationship with the male sex worker. He resigned his position as head of the National Association of Evangelicals, and was forced out of the New Life Church he had founded, quitting the $138,000 yearly salary the church paid him. He moved to Phoenix, AZ., and entered a church-oriented “restoration process” after which he declared himself “completely heterosexual”. He took classes towards a degree in counseling. In 2009, he and his wife appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, and The Larry King Live Show to offer public confessions and apologies for his conduct. Since then, the Ted Haggard has incorporated a new church in Colorado Springs, CO., admitted that he considers himself to be bisexual, and admitted to carrying on a three-year, non-consensual sexual relation with a male parishioner while he was leader of the New Life Church (the New Life Church announced it reached a financial settlement with the former parishioner involving an abusive relationship with Pastor Haggard).
Philip D. Hinkle – NEW Inductee!!
Rep. Philip Hinkle is a republican state representative serving Indiana's 92nd district since 2000 Previously, he worked as a tax assessor and a member of the city-county Council in Wayne Township IN., and has worked as a real estate agent. Rep. Hinkle is married and has two children. He says he does not support same-sex marriage for the state of Indiana, and co-sponsored a constitutional amendment (to the IN constitution) to ban gay marriage.
In Aug. of 2011, CNN reported that Rep. Hinkle exchanged sexually suggestive emails with an 18 yr old male he met on CraigsList M4M section. Kameryn Gibson told the Indianapolis Star newspaper that he placed an ad in CraigList M4M section, and within an hour received a reply from Rep. Hinkle's publicly listed personal email address phinkle46@comcast.net: “Cannot be a long-time sugar daddy, but can for tonight. Would you be interested in keeping me company for a while tonight....” The email exchange includes “How about $80 for services rendered, and if real satisfied, a healthy tip”, and “Final for the record, for a real good time you get another 50-60 bucks. That sounds good?” The emails carried the tagline “Sent from Phil's iPad”. Mr Gibson says Rep Hinkle picked him up and drove him to the Indianapolis JW Marriot hotel, but when Rep. Hinkle revealed that he was a state law-maker and showed him an ID card, Mr Gibson became frightened and tried to leave the hotel room. Mr Gibson says that Rep Hinkle then became angry, grabbed Gibson's rear, and disrobed himself. Later Rep. Hinkle gave Gibson an iPad, a Blackberry phone, and $100 in cash to stay quiet. As of this writing, Rep. Hinkle's has said only that “I am aware of a shakedown taking place”, but has refused to comment further.
John Hinson – R; Miss.
A member of the US House of Representatives from 1979-1981. During his re-election campaign in 1980, Hinson admitted that in 1976, he had been arrested for committing an obscene act, exposing himself to an undercover policeman, at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. Hinson, who was married, was again arrested in 1981, 1981, and was charged with attempted oral sodomy on an African-American male employee of the Library of Congress in a restroom of the House of Representatives. Hinson resigned in 1981, and spent the remainder of his life as a gay activist in Washington, D.C., where he was a founding member of the Fairfax Lesbian and Gay Citizens Association in Fairfax County, and worked to overturn the ban on gay service in the military. He died of AIDS in 1995.
George Alan Rekers
George Alan Rekers is a conservative anti-gay activist, and was a founding member (along with James Dodson) of the Family Research Council. Dr. Rekers was a board member and one-time scientific advisor to the National Organization for Research and Therapy for Homosexuality, an organization that promotes the “therapeutic” treatment of homosexuals, and served at various times in an advisory capacity to the Bush White House, Congress, and the Dept of Health and Human Services. Dr. Rekers earned a Ph.D in psychology from UCLA and is professor emeritus of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Univ. S. Carolina School of Medicine. His area of expertise seems to be gender identity and sexual thinking of adolescent boys. Dr. Rekers treated Kirk Murphy as a young boy, and claims that he cured Mr. Murphy of his homosexuality. Murphy's family says the therapy was a source of lifelong struggle and pain for Mr. Murphy, and ultimately led him to commit suicide as a young adult. Mr Rekers has testified in court as an expert witness that homosexuality is sinful and destructive, and that gay adults should not be allowed to adopt children in cases involving the states' banning of gay adoption in Arkansas and Florida.
In 2010, Dr. Rekers was photographed by a reporter from the Miami Herald returning from a trip to Europe accompanied by a handsome, athletically-built young man named Jo-Vanni Roman, a gay male sex worker who offers his services through a web-site called “Rent-Boy.com”. Dr. Rekers acknowledged that he hired Mr Roman as his travel assistant for a ten-day trip to Europe, but denied any sexual activity with his companion, and stated that he was not a homosexual. Mr. Roman reported that his paid duties included daily nude massages with occassional genital fondling, and that he himself thought that Dr. Rekers was a homosexual. Dr Rekers admitted hiring Mr Roman to accompany him on his European travels, but denied that they had sex or that he himself was homosexual.
Ed Shrock – R; Vir.
Elected to the US House of Representative in 2000, from where he co-sponsored the Federal Marriage Amendment, voted Yea for the Marriage Protection Act, and aggressively opposed allowing gay people in the military. Schrock announced that he would not seek re-election in 2004 after being caught on tape soliciting sex from a gay prostitute. Schrock was included in the 2009 documentary Outrage, which profiles closeted gay public officials
James Elton (Jim) West – R; Wash
Jim West served in the Washington State House of Representatives from 1983-1986, and in the state senate from 1986-2003. He served as the 41st Mayor of Spokane, Wash., from 2003-2005. He was a life-long republican who listed his occupations as “Republican”. During his years in the legislature, West developed a record as an opponent of rights for homosexuals. He supported several "anti-gay" bills, including one that would have banned gays and lesbians from working in schools and day care centers. He unsuccessfully proposed a law banning all sexual activity among persons under the age of 18.
In 2004, Mayor West was identified by the Spokane Review newspaper as “cobra82”, a regular poster of sex ads on the web-site Gay.com, after Mayor West answered a fictitious ad placed by an investigator. West later admitted to private relationships through the gay web-site. In 2005, the Spokane Review alleged that West offered unpaid internships in the Mayor’s office to young gay men. That same year, allegations surfaced that West had sexually molested young boys while he was troop leader for the local Boy Scouts. West’s fellow troop leader, David Hahn, committed suicide after allegations of sexual abuse became public. The FBI conducted an investigation, and no charges were brought. Spokane voters recalled West in a special election, and West left public life in 2005.