Congressman Foley,
I have no doubt that if you had some traumatic experience when you were young, it has shaped you to be who and what you are today. Nobody should have to go through molestation; it is a horrible thing to do to a person, much less a child.
That said, your “bombshell” today that you are gay is not an excuse for your behavior. Being gay does not make a person a child molester or child exploiter. They are two totally separate things. What you and the Republican Right are trying to do is trivialize the fact that what you did is wrong, and are trying to paint being gay, and as a result, gay people in general, as evil. That, sir, will not be tolerated. Republicans think that they can easily lead people to believe what they want (consider the President’s last Saturday address, where he once again tried to link 9/11 with Iraq) and this is no doubt what you’re doing. And it is just as wrong to try and put those correlations in people’s heads as it was to try and engage an underage person in sexual congress.
You, sir, show that just like most Republican leaders in this Nation, that you have a very ugly soul.