[2] Through his father, he was a descendant of Elbridge Gerry, who served as the vice president of the United States and the governor of Massachusetts in the 1810s.

[6] After graduating, he served in the United States Foreign Service and the Kennedy White House, where he helped develop the Peace Corps.

In 1968, during the Vietnam War, Studds persuaded anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy to challenge incumbent president Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire presidential primary.

[12] Sensing weakness, Robert F. Kennedy entered the presidential race four days later, causing Johnson to retire from electoral politics.

[4] Redistricting forced Keith to retire before the 1972 election,[14] and Studds edged out the Republican William D. Weeks by just 1,118 votes.

[16][19] During the course of the House Ethics Committee's investigation, Studds publicly acknowledged his homosexuality, thereby becoming the first openly gay Member of Congress.

"[20] Although Studds disagreed with the committee's findings of improper sexual conduct, he waived his right to a public hearing in order to protect the privacy of those involved.

[26] As a Member of Congress, Studds advocated for environmental and maritime issues, AIDS funding, and civil rights, particularly for gays and lesbians.

He supported protectionist policies for the Massachusetts fishing industry, and in the 1970s he "largely" drafted a ban on foreign vessels fishing within 200 miles of the U.S. coast,[31] winning him the lifelong friendship of Alaska Republican Don Young, the bill's co-author, who reportedly "hate[d] homosexuals and eastern liberals, but not Mr.

[37] Studds and partner Dean T. Hara (his companion since 1991) were married in Boston on May 24, 2004, one week after Massachusetts became the first state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage.

[38] Due to the federal ban on same-sex marriage, Hara was not eligible, upon Studds' death, to receive the pension provided to surviving spouses of former members of Congress.

[39] Hara later joined a federal lawsuit, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, that successfully challenged the constitutionality of section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act.

The investigators quoted two former SPS students who claimed that they had questionable encounters with Studds during their time at the school, and described their statements as "substantiated.

"[45] One of the witnesses also relayed that according to another SPS teacher, the school fired Studds in 1969 for inappropriate conduct with students; the report did not confirm or deny this claim.