There’s been a lot of hullabaloo over Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore and his alleged sexual relationships with teenage girls in the 1970s, and liberals and politicos have predicted that it will be the end Republican Party if he wins Alabama’s special election Tuesday.
However, if Moore does win, it wouldn’t be the first time voters have elected someone embroiled in a teen sex scandal.
In 1983, Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Gerry Studds was censured by the House in a 420-3 vote for having a sexual relationship at age 36 with a 17-year-old male congressional page, as well as making sexual advances toward two other male teenage pages.
Despite the censure, however, Studds was re-elected in his district with 56 percent of the vote, and the media was clearly in his corner. At the time, Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy accused “gay-baiters” of leading a “witch hunt” against Studds for having a “brief consenting homosexual relationship with a congressional page.”
(L-R) Rep. Gerry Studds w. his lover Dean Hara arriving at the Mayflower Hotel where he is to award medals to notable gay men & lesbians who have served honorably in the military during the Human Rights Campaign Fund Gala Dinner. (Photo by Robert Sherbow/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)
The page testified that the relationship was indeed consensual. However, that shouldn’t forgive Studds’s behavior. According to the congressional investigation, the affair began when Studds invited the page back to his apartment for drinks. Eventually, Studds claimed he was too drunk to drive the page home before engaging him in sexual activity.
Studds attempted the same ploy with two other teenage pages, but they refused his sexual advances. In fact, Studds’s behavior was well known enough that the Republican cloakroom page supervisor warned one of the pages “that [he] and the other kids should keep their distance.”
Can you imagine what would happen if a Republican pulled the same stunt? Actually, we don’t have to imagine it. The very same day that Studds was censured, the House also censured Republican Rep. Dan Crane for having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female page. Like Studds’s case, the relationship was both consensual and legal (the age of consent in the District of Columbia was 16). However, whereas Studds was re-elected and hailed as a hero, Crane lost his re-election bid the following year.
Also, rather unsurprisingly, Studds maintained that the House only opted to censure him because he was gay – despite that they also censured Crane for committing virtually the exact same offense.
In many ways, Moore’s alleged offenses can’t be compared to Studds’s. However, there’s historical proof that Republicans are held to a different standard than Democrats. Further, one Moore accuser has already admitted to fabricating part of her claim. Does that mean Moore hasn’t done anything wrong in his past? No. But liberals would do well to remember their own offenses before making blanket statements and accusations about the Republican Party.
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