1964 saw the loss of Barry Goldwater for the presidency, and that was the same year that Robert Bauman (1937- ) both was admitted to the bar in Maryland and attended his first Republican National Convention. His career gradually took off and the image he presented was as a model: a successful married father of four. Bauman was a conservative activist and had taken part in the founding of Young Americans for Freedom and the American Conservative Union.
In 1973, Congressman William Mills of Maryland’s 1st district committed suicide over the belief that he had run afoul of the law (he likely did not). This opened the door to Bauman’s run, and in Congress he became a star among conservatives, since with John Rousselot (R-Calif.) he became a master of parliamentary procedure as well as a compelling advocate for conservative positions and values. In terms of policing the Democrats for rules, he was essentially a successor to the legendary skinflint H.R. Gross (R-Iowa). On his conservatism, his modified Americans for Constitutional Action average score was a 94%. Conservative fundraiser Richard Viguerie regarded him as one of the top 10 conservatives of Congress (Polman). He was close with Ronald Reagan and National Review’s William F. Buckley Jr. Bauman was also known for his jabs: when Congressman Wayne Hays (D-Ohio), who was found to be having an affair with his secretary who he paid for doing no work, accused Bauman of knowing nothing about foreign affairs, he snapped back that Hays “had problems with affairs himself” (Polman). In 1979, he was one of the leaders of the House opposition to implementing the Panama Canal Treaty. The unpopularity of the Panama Canal Treaty would be one of the issues that would help Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign. By that year, he not only looked golden for reelection, but he also had plans to run for the Senate in 1982. However, Bauman had for many years been living a secret life.
Bauman’s first sexual experience he reported as being before the age of six with a 12-year-old neighbor (Romano). His sexual experiences were exclusively same-sex until he met his to-be wife, Carol. Bauman’s secret life would continue after marriage, and in one 1963 incident at Georgetown University, he was perusing for men and after picking up two muscular guys, they mugged and beat him. After Bauman would drive the babysitter for his young children home, he would go looking for men and was a known figure among the gay community in Washington D.C. Bauman wanted to maintain the lifestyle of a married man with four children, but his sexual tendencies were elsewhere.
Bauman Gets Caught
On October 3, 1980, Bauman was arrested for soliciting sex from a 16-year-old nude dancer in a Washington D.C. gay bar (Romano). He would before his election claim alcoholism as responsible for his behavior. Bauman would, however, also state that he had “homosexual tendencies” while denying he was a homosexual (Haskett). He was one of the few Republicans to lose reelection that year, and he would later admit that he was gay. Bauman stated on his realization, “Until 1980, I had never read extensively about homosexuality. I avoided it. I didn’t want to know. I was quite certain that it couldn’t include me in that category” (Romano) In June 1981, he and Carol would divorce.
Bauman would, years later, reflect on his experience, “What happened to me, stems from our society’s widespread ignorance. When someone like me, someone who got through Georgetown Law School, who got married and had four children, and attained the status of congressman, doesn’t know what he’s been confronting his whole life – there’s a lot of ignorance. We have to understand the suffering that flows from that. I still don’t like being gay. If I had my druthers, I wouldn’t be gay” (Polman).
Although many would keep their distance from him, he still had some help from friends. Edward Derwinski, who served as secretary of veterans’ affairs during George H.W. Bush’s presidency and was a former colleague of his in Congress, hired him for legal work. He has post-Congress mostly retained his conservative viewpoints although he did call for an anti-discrimination law for sexual orientation. Bauman’s specialty has been in offshore tax havens and has authored multiple books on the subject.
References
Haskett, M.E. (1980, October 24). Maryland Rep. Robert Bauman, charged with soliciting sex from… UPI.
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Kelly, J. (2008, April 5). Whatever happened to…Robert E. Bauman? The Baltimore Sun.
Retrieved from
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2008-04-05-0804050215-story.html
Polman, D. (1986, August 14). Out Of The Closet And Into An Abyss: Once A Darling Of The Political Right, Robert Bauman Fell Hard From Congress When It Was Revealed That He Was Gay. Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Romano, L. (1986, August 6). Bob Bauman, After the Fall. The Washington Post.
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Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History 