Shailagh Murray, Washington Post

Friday, October 6, 2006

 

 

"You have someone who for all intents and purposes is a gay person, but continues to perpetuate the myth that there's something wrong with it," said Tracy Thorne-Begland, a Foley family friend.

 

In 1992, as a Navy lieutenant, Thorne-Begland announced he was gay during a nationally televised interview, helping to lay the groundwork for the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Four years later, after Foley voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, Thorne-Begland called to complain.

 

"I said, how could you vote against me, my family, your own self-interest?" recalled Thorne-Begland, now an attorney for the city of Richmond, Va. He said Foley responded, "I could never compare any relationship I have ever had to the nature of my mother and father's relationship."