Gerry Studds, 69

Gerry Studds, America’s first openly gay Congressman, has died in Boston at age 69, due to a blood clot in his lung. Studds had been in the news recently, even though he retired from Congress in 1997, as he too had been involved in a page scandal, back in 1983. Studds leaves his husband, Dean Dara, whom he married shortly after gay marriage was made legal in Massachusetts.