In Philip Gambone’s interview with Massachusetts Congressional Representative Barney Frank, Frank recalls that, shortly after he came out publicly, House Speaker Tip O’Neill said to him, “ ‘Oh, Barney, I’m so sorry. I thought you were going to be the first Jewish Speaker,’ meaning that as an out gay man I couldn’t become Speaker. I could have told him that there had already been two gay Speakers: Joe Martin and Sam Rayburn.”
The office building for Congressional Reps is named after Sam Rayburn. Rayburn, according to Wikipedia, “was a Democratic lawmaker from Bonham, Texas, who served as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for seventeen years, the longest tenure in U.S. history.”
Joseph Martin was a Massachusetts Republican and served as Speaker in a couple two year periods in the 40s and 50s.
I don’t know where Barney Frank got his information on the personal lives of these two men. But, you know, on this I’ll trust Barney.
source: Travels in a Gay Nation: portraits of LGBTQ Americans by Philip Gambone
3 comments:
Martin and Frank represented the same Congressional district. Martin was my congressman when I was a kid. Everyone knew that he never married, but I can't recall rumors that he was a homosexual. And it's not that wasn't in the air. Sen. David I. Walsh was pretty well driven out of office because the was supposed to be gay. Bachelor Gov. Paul Dever was also under suspicion.
hi mlw -- Barney Frank didn't offer any evidence for his IDing Joseph Martin and Sam Rayburn as gay (at least, not in this interview) -- and I have done no independent research -- but Barney Frank isn't known for making wild claims. It might have been meant as a joke -- serious/not serious. I don't know. But not only is there nothing wrong with being gay, I think it's time we offered historical figures an opportunity to live a little beyond their straitened images. We all have thoughts we don't express, desires we keep behind closed doors. Let's imagine whole people, gay, het, or somewhere indescribable.
Sam Rayburn was married to Metze Jones in 1927, but they divorced later the same year, and Rayburn was never married, either before or since. The story is that they disagreed over the use of alcohol, but considering that they had known each other for nine years, and that National Prohibition was still in effect, you would think they would have known about that before they got married. On the other hand, despite the social advantages of being married, he probably realized, on his wedding night or shortly thereafter, that he just could not. Total speculation, but the stated reason for the short marriage makes no sense. My theory does.
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