Mark Foley

 

Mark Foley was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives and a campaigner against child abuse. In September 2006 he was forced to resign after it emerged that he had sent sexually explicit e-mails to teenage boys who had formerly worked as Congressional pages. The scandal rocked the American media, particularly because Foley had been vociferous in his condemnation of child abuse and exploitation.

 

Gay rumours

 

Mark Adam Foley was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of a police officer. At the age of three he moved with his father, mother and four siblings to Lake Worth, Florida, and later attended high school and college there. As a young man he started a restaurant with his mother and then moved on to become a real estate broker. He began to serve as chairman for a variety of enterprises, including a hospital, and by the age of 23 was a member of Lake Worth City Council. He set his sights on a political career, but it was not until 1990 that he was finally elected to the Florida House of Representatives. Two years later he was a member of the Florida Senate. It seemed that his political ambitions were well on the way to being achieved.

However, there were some who questioned his personal life, in particular the fact that he was not married and was rumoured to be gay. A number of articles and commentaries had appeared in the alternative press and on-line speculating that he was gay. The rumours continued to circulate as Foley made a bid to enter the US Senate, and later it was reported by the mainstream press that the fact that Foley was gay was an open secret in the political world.

 

Child pornography campaign

 

In 1994 Foley was elected to the US House as a Republican. Two years later he was re-elected with a larger share of the vote, and after that his popularity grew. By 2003 he was in the running to replace Bob Graham at the Senate, but the rumours continued to thwart his career. He had become known as a campaigner against child pornography, serving on a committee concerned with missing and exploited children. He particularly focussed on child pornography, pointing out that there were websites on the Internet featuring suggestive images of pre-teen children, and advocating that these should be outlawed, since, in his words, they were ‘nothing more than a fix for paedophiles’.

Foley drew up a bill to forbid the use of such images, but it proved unworkable since it would have banned many types of ordinary commercial photography involving children. He also wrote to the governor of Florida about a local teenage nudist programme that he disapproved of. He was responsible for changes in sex offender laws, which were supported by TV shows, victims’ rights groups and children’s groups. His legislation became part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, signed by President Bush. In addition he pioneered the use of FBI fingerprint background checks in hiring staff for volunteer youth organisations.

 

Suggestive e-mail messages

 

In many ways Foley’s stance was one of a puritanical, right-wing Republican who stood for old-fashioned values. For example, he supported the death penalty, strict sentences for violent crimes and was against abortion. For that reason, it was all the more damaging to his career when stories that he was gay, bisexual or living with a male lover, were published in the New York Times and New York Press, both alternative papers. Foley denounced the rumours as ‘revolting’ and stated that his sexual orientation was not important. However, as many noted, he did not deny them. Shortly afterwards, he withdrew his candidacy, saying that his father’s serious illness had changed his priorities.

A scandal broke in 2006 when it was reported on ABC News that the previous year Foley had sent suggestive e-mail messages to a former Congressional page. According to the report, Foley requested a photograph of the boy and asked him what he would like for his birthday. He also told the page that he had been for a long bicycle ride and was about to go to the gym. When the matter was reported, Foley’s office responded that the boy had asked for a recommendation and that, in such cases, former employees were often asked for photographs for the purposes of identification.

However, another page then came forward and reported that Foley had sent him sexually explicit messages by e-mail. These messages were much more direct, and mentioned sexual organs and acts in a lewd way. This time Foley could find no excuse for his behaviour, and accordingly resigned from office. In a statement he said, ‘I am deeply sorry, and I apologise for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent.’

 

Secret alcoholic

 

But the scandal was by no means over. One by one, more pages came forward alleging Foley’s inappropriate conduct, which appeared to have gone on for more than a decade. It emerged that Foley had already been warned about his behaviour in 2005 by a House clerk and a house republican. Foley countered the claims, insisting that he was not a paedophile, and had not had any sexual contact with a young person. He explained the e-mails by saying that he was an alcoholic and had sent the messages while drunk. He issued a statement that he was checking himself in to a rehabilitation clinic. He also let it be known, through his lawyer, that he had been molested by a church minister between the ages of 13 and 15, and added, finally, that he was a homosexual.

The scandal provoked a furore in Washington, and there were calls for Foley’s Republican bosses such as Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert to resign. The affair did their careers a certain amount of damage, but after Foley’s resignation the matter was dropped.

In 2006 a man named Anthony Mercieca identified himself as a former Catholic priest who had had a relationship with Foley while he was a teenager. He said that the liaision had taken place in Fort Worth, while Foley was serving as an alter boy. The priest, who was now retired and living on the island of Malta, told how he and Foley had taken naked saunas together, but said that no actual sexual activity had taken place.