In October 2006, prosecutors investigated a camping trip that Kolbe took in July 1996 with two male pages, as well as National Park officials, staffers and his sister. (That same year, he informed the congressional page program about possibly inappropriate contact between Congressman Mark Foley and teen pages.) In 2000, he became the first openly gay person to address the Republican National Convention, although his speech did not address gay rights. He subsequently came out, and actually won reelection that same year. This Arizona Congressman wasn’t exactly “taken down” by revelations about his sexuality-but he was forced to come out.Īfter Kolbe voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, LGBT advocates threatened to out him-placing a full-page ad in the Washington Blade calling on closeted congressmen to “end your silence and defend your community.”