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Water-Bill Debate Turns To Name Calling and Slurs [1]

['John H. Cushman Jr.']

Date: 1995-05-12

"I am talking about you and liberals like you that keep deferring defense," Mr. Cunningham replied.

Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is avowedly gay, joined the fray, complaining about Mr. Cunningham's use of the word "homo."

"The time is over when I will let that kind of gratuitous bigotry go unchallenged," Mr. Frank said.

But no one sought to have the House censure Mr. Cunningham for violating normal House rules, which prohibit name-calling on the House floor.

Ms. Schroeder did raise what she called a parliamentary inquiry, "Do we have to call the gentleman a gentleman if he is not one?"

Mr. Frank, who was not on the floor when Mr. Cunningham first used the term, spoke after the vote on the amendment regarding military pollution, which was defeated.

"I take the floor simply to express my contempt for the effort to introduce such unwarranted and gratuitous slurs on decent human beings on the floor of this House," he said.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/12/us/water-bill-debate-turns-to-name-calling-and-slurs.html

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