Richard Curtis

 Richard Curtis was born in 1959. He was elected as a Republican member of the Washington State House of Representatives from 2005 to 2007. He represented the Clark and Cowlitz counties.

 Curtis, who is married with two daughters, was well known for his stance against gays. In 2006 he voted against a gay rights bill. Even in 2007 he opposed domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian couples.

 In October 2007 the Spokane Spokesman-Review reported that Richard Curtis was gay. He was alleged to have had sex with a boy called Cody Castagna. It said that they met in an adult book store and later had sex in a hotel room. Cody Castagna was known to have previously posed for gay pornography. Curtis was also alleged for cross dressing. He wore women’s clothes. Castanga tried to blackmail Curtis and extract money. He demanded $ 1000 from Curtis. Curtis initiated formal extortion charges against the boy.

 During the police investigation it was revealed that Curtis had sex with Castanga. However Castanga denied extortion which amounted to Class B felony. Curtis initially denied the charge of being gay but later resigned out of shame on 31 October 2007. He pleaded guilty for having caused pain to his family.

Mark Adam Foley an American politician who had served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 until 2006, had to resign in shame on charges of sending sexually explicit messages to minors. Ironically he was known as a crusader against child abuse and exploitation.

Foley was elected to the U.S. House in 1994 with 58 percent of the vote. There after he got re-elected after every two years. He was a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. In late 2000, Foley played a large role in aiding George W. Bush during the Presidential election.

While Foley’s popularity soared rumors surfaced that Foley was either gay or bisexual and was in a long-term relationship with a man. The story was published in local and gay press. Foley promptly held a press conference to denounce it. He stated that his sexual orientation was unimportant.

On September 28, 2006, ABC News reported that, in 2005, Foley had sent email messages from his personal AOL account to a former Congressional page, asking the page to send a photo. Another page reported of having received sexually explicit messages from Foley.

As a result of the disclosures, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement opened investigations of the messages to find possible criminal charges. Foley had to resign in shame. Foley said in a statement, “I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent”.

Politicians have had a long history of having sexual relationships by exploiting powerless people associated with politics. At times even minors have been victimized. The 1983, Congressional Page Sex Scandal was one such scandal, which rocked the country.

Pages are High School students sponsored by political parties to carry out administrative functions in the House of Representatives. Two politicians, Rep. Dan Crane (R-IL) and Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA) were involved in one of the most famous sex scandals of the 1980s. In 1983 the House Ethics Committee recommended these two politicians for a reprimand.

Crane was accused of having had sex four or five times at his suburban apartment with a female page sometime in 1973. The age of the page then was 17 years. Studds was accused of having a gay relationship with a male page. He took him to Portugal on a visit and also had sex with him in his apartment in Georgetown.

The House took a serious note of the conduct by the two politicians and voted by a supermajority to revise the reprimand recommendation to censure. The award of a censure was more severe than a reprimand. Before the censures were pronounced both the politicians admitted to serious errors of judgment.