Naptown 21 - Summer Internship - 2. Political First Focus - Kurt

Summer Internship

A Naptown Tales Novel by Altimexis & David of Hope

Political First Focus - Kurt
by Altimexis

I didn’t think I’d ever been so nervous in my life. What the fuck was I doing here? Me, Kurt DeWitt, an ordinary, fifteen-year-old gay teenager, and here I was, sitting in the office of our state’s junior senator. God, I wish Trevor could have been here with me, but he had his own crisis to deal with.

As president of our high school’s GSA, Trevor often got calls to help with teens just coming to terms with being gay. I guess some family was thrown into chaos when their fourteen-year-old son got caught looking at internet porn. Gay porn.

’Course my own coming out story was pretty dramatic . . . I told my story to the damn city, right on the front page of The Star, to a readership of some fifty thousand. Yeah, my dad sure didn’t take it too well, either. Oh, he already knew about me and had plans to ship me down south to the Christian Academy to try and make me straight, since the pastor of the Hope Evangelical Covenant Church just couldn’t have a gay son. Faced with such a public humiliation, he just up and left town, leaving my mom, my two brothers, and me, to deal with it on our own. Well, unlike Dad, we knew the true meaning of Christian love. And so did my boyfriend, Trevor, who’s also a member of our church.

I knew that he’d help that family deal with having a gay son, but that meant I’d have to face the senator on my own for this pre-summer internship interview, and that sucked - big time.

So here I was, sitting in the senator’s local office, waiting to be called in to meet with him. What was I doing here?

I actually had a chance to meet our senior senator while some of our friends and I were on Spring Break last month in Washington, D.C. My friend, Jeremy Kimball’s dad arranged the whole thing, and we all met with the senator, who’s like the second highest-ranking Republican senator on Capitol Hill, or something like that. He seemed like a real nice guy and he arranged for a super knowledgeable tour guide to take us all around Washington. We all had a great time.

What we all didn’t expect, however, was for President Obama to show up while we were meeting with the senator and, boy, did our friend, David Reynolds, give the president a piece of his mind. Yeah, he sure told him what he thought about his lack of a record on gay rights. By the time David got done with him, the president’s Chief of Staff was offering David and Jeremy, David’s boyfriend, summer internships at the White House. Whoa - none of us could believe it. I mean, summer internships are hard to get, and they’re supposed to be for college students, but after David’s performance, they decided to bend the rules a little.

Then the senator really blew us away by suggesting that Trevor and I could be summer pages in the Senate. Damn! ’Course, we didn’t know it at the time, but that really opened up a can of worms. Trevor more than qualifies - you have to be at least sixteen, have a 3.0 GPA and be a junior in high school. Well, no problem there, on all accounts, in Trevor’s case - in fact, he has a 3.93 GPA, near perfect scores on his SATs and, having just finished his junior year, this is the last year he’d be eligible for the summer page program.

I’m a different story, however. Oh, my grades are good enough - my GPA’s 3.87 - I just can’t seem to get A’s in gym, dammit, but I’m only fifteen and I’ll just be starting my sophomore year next fall. I just didn’t qualify, pure and simple. Not only that, but there are only thirty pages allowed at a time, and they rarely allow two from the same state . . . in fact, the only exceptions ever have been for twins. Something tells me there’d be quite a scandal if they did it for boyfriends.

But the senator really, really had his heart set on both Trevor and me being pages this summer, for both of the three-week summer sessions. And that’s another thing - I felt kind of funny about taking two spots from someone else. There’s a reason they split the summer in two like that, so that more kids can get a chance to be pages. The program is highly competitive, but the senator really thought we should spend all six weeks in the program . . . that we had ‘exceptional potential’, as he put it.

Well, the only option was for me to be a page in the House of Representatives instead of the Senate, but what would have been the good of that . . . or for me to page for our state’s junior senator, who was a Democrat. Not that I had anything against the Democrats or anything - in fact, I’d helped out with Obama’s campaign, but I came from a family of lifelong Republicans and my beliefs were much more aligned with the Republicans and this was just foreign territory to me.

I just wasn’t sure how I felt about working for a Democratic senator is all. And waiting in his office really sucked. The incessant ticking of the grandfather clock was just driving me nuts! Finally, the door opened and the senator appeared with a man at his side.

“I wish I could help you, Ralph,” the senator said to the man, “but there just isn’t money left over in the budget, now that we’ve put so much into the stimulus package. Bailing out Detroit, bailing out the banking industry, bailing out failed mortgages, bailing out consumer debt. . . . I know this state loved the man, but George W. did more harm to the economy in eight years than you could ever imagine. And you know I tried to warn you, too . . . but I’m not one to say, ‘I told you so’,” the senator said with a smile. Sighing, he continued, “So when it comes to farm subsidies, I’ll do what I can to keep the president from pulling the plug, but you know as well as I that he’s not at all sympathetic to agribusiness. Family farms are different matter, but the people you represent are no ‘mom and pop’ operation.

“Sell your land back to the families you bankrupted in the last century,” the senator said with a sly smile, “and then we can talk.”

“You little bastard,” the man named Ralph said as he lightly punched the senator in the shoulder.”

“Hey, we all do what we have to, to survive,” the senator said. “And be sure to give my best to Susan and the kids,” he added.

After the man had left, the senator came up to me and I rose to my feet. The senator was easily over six feet, so that he towered over my five-foot, nine inches. At least Trevor was only five-eleven, so around him I wasn’t nearly so height-conscious. But then the senator reached out with his hand and grasped mine firmly and smiled at me with one of the warmest, most genuine smiles I’d seen in a while, as he said, “Kurt DeWitt, I’ve heard so much about you from Dick. It’s a genuine pleasure to finally meet you.”

As we shook hands, he continued with, “Come into my office and we can chat for a bit and get to know each other better.”

The junior senator led me into his office with a gentle, fatherly push of his hand on the small of my back. His office had rich, dark paneling and a surprisingly homey feel to it with a large, but unobtrusive oak desk tucked in the corner, out of the way. Taking up most of the office were a leather sofa and chairs around a coffee table. It looked more like a living room than an office. I immediately took a liking to the senator, although I didn’t know why.

“Well, Kurt,” the senator began with a smile, “I understand you’re a Republican, but I certainly won’t hold that against you in this state, of all places.”

“Senator,” I said, “truthfully, I was raised in a very conservative Evangelical Christian home. My father was the pastor of our church, and when he discovered his youngest son was gay, he made arrangements to ship me away for a little ‘reprogramming’. The thing is, I still have conservative Christian values, but I believe in Christian values as Christ himself taught them. I also believe the Bible was written by men, and has been subject to reinterpretation through the ages.

“I may have conservative values, but I carry liberal ideals, and it’s the blend of these philosophies that makes me what I am today. I champion gay rights, and women’s rights, and equality for all. That said, I believe there should be limits. Teenagers are not ready to be parents, but abortion is not the answer to teen pregnancies. My Evangelical peers do not want to teach about condom use in schools, but if we don’t, we risk spreading HIV. I believe in pragmatism. First and foremost, we must teach abstinence, but abstinence only goes so far, and for that reason, condoms need to be freely available. More than anything, however, parents need to be comfortable talking to their kids. That alone would do more to prevent the spread of HIV and teen pregnancies than all the rhetoric and condom use, combined.

“Tell me, is that a Republican viewpoint, or is that a Democratic viewpoint?” I asked.

“That’s an interesting social philosophy, Kurt,” the senator said, “especially coming from a lad of your age. I’m probably a bit more liberal than you are on social issues, but not by much, and rather conservative on fiscal issues.”

“I’m very much a fiscal conservative,” I volunteered. “In fact, that’s one of the things that really bothers me about the mess we’re in right now. I never did understand the logic of cutting taxes. I generally like the small government message of the Republican Party, but supply side economics were this country’s ruin, and deregulation turned out to be a disaster. As my friend, Jeremy Kimball likes to say, we may never know how much money was lost through schemes on Wall Street that amounted to nothing more than legalized money laundering. It just sucked money out of the economy and fueled speculation.

“Now we’re being forced to borrow from our future, just to survive, and it’ll be our children who have to pay the price for our foolishness. I’m just not sure the stimulus plan will even work. Don’t get me wrong . . . my friends and I all supported Obama . . . McCain’s strategies would have only made things worse, but things look pretty bleak right now.”

“Kurt,” the senator said, “you and I see precisely eye-to-eye when it comes to the economy, which is pretty amazing considering you’re just finishing up your freshman year in high school. You’re a pretty smart guy.

“Now as you know, the Page Program is supposed to be for high school juniors, and you have to be sixteen to be eligible, so you don’t really qualify.”

I looked down at the floor when he said that and my heart sank, even though it was the answer I was expecting.

“And I didn’t like the idea of being strong-armed into taking someone from across the aisle when there are so many kids who are deserving, particularly when Dick said he thought you ought to page for the full summer and not just three weeks.

“Since there are so few pages, getting two from one state, particularly a smaller state, can be tough, but both Dick and I have seniority, and my party’s in power, and you and Trevor both have impressive backgrounds . . . but now there’s the little matter of the Congressional Gold Medal that should more or less cinch it for you.”

It took a minute for what the senator had said to sink in, and even then I still wasn’t grasping it.

“Congressional Gold Medal?” I finally asked.

“Yes, Kurt, the Congressional Gold Medal. As soon as you get to Washington, one of the first things it will be my pleasure to do will be to participate in a ceremony awarding you the Congressional Gold Medal.

“Actually President Obama had planned to award you the Young American Medal for Bravery, which ‘recognizes individuals exhibiting exceptional courage, extraordinary decision making, presence of mind, and unusual swiftness of action, regardless of their own personal safety, to save a person whose life was in actual imminent danger’, and you certainly do qualify for that and will be receiving the Presidential Medal as well, but Dick and I felt what you did went far beyond just saving young Sam Franklin’s life.

“Not only did you perform a selfless act of bravery without any hesitation to save young Sam, but your swift action resulted in saving countless other lives as well, and you went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the perpetrator’s capture, but you didn’t stop there, either, did you? So many people, even adults, go into hiding after they’ve been raped. You, however, have spoken out about your experience. You’ve helped countless others, and allowed your presentation to be made into a DVD.

“And still, you continue to give of yourself, volunteering, counseling, and your story is even the focus of an upcoming edition of Frontline, to be aired on PBS, is that not right?” he asked.

“Well, yes,” I admitted, “but what I did was pretty stupid. It’s just that telling my story is a way for something good to come of it, you know? I can’t change what happened . . . all the bad things that that pedophile did to all those kids. I can’t make up for the kids that are now HIV-positive and I can’t change the fact that I was raped. By telling my story, I can ‘pay it forward’, as they say. Maybe I can give other kids the knowledge to keep something like this from happening to them.”

“Kurt, you’re an amazing young man. To save a life is one thing, but you possibly saved many lives, and since then you’ve been using your story to potentially save countless more, and for that the nation is grateful. The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian honor the Congress can bestow on one of its citizens. Both Dick and I sponsored your nomination, and it sailed through both houses.

“The courage you possess is a rarity, Kurt, particularly in someone so young. You are more than deserving of the page position this summer, and of being able to be a page in the Senate at the same time as your boyfriend.

“There’s one thing I must caution you about, however, my young man. There have been numerous scandals in the past involving the Page Program, and the news media in Washington love nothing more than a scandal. If there’s even a hint of a scandal, they will be all over it in the blink of an eye.

“Twenty years ago, there was a huge scandal involving pages and gay sex . . . that some Congressmen were getting it on with some of the male pages. Even today, it’s not cool for some politicians to be out, and there’s only one openly gay man in Congress. The reality of course is that there are as many gay senators and representatives as there are in the general population; nearly all of whom are in the closet. Some of them are known to the rest of us and very discrete about their affairs, but others are deeply in hiding for a variety of reasons.

“Having openly gay pages on the floor of the Senate could present a problem in two ways. Firstly, it could present a temptation to the more deeply closeted members, and you have to figure there are some ten gay senators, which could lead to embarrassing situations. Politicians, after all, have been known to have their zipper problems. Secondly, if the news media were to get wind of you guys, there could be the assumption of a scandal before anything even happens.”

“Senator,” I responded, “Trevor and I are out. We’ve been out for a long time. Everyone knows about us at school. Heck, I came out on the front page of The Star a year a go at New Years. That kind of news is bound to catch up with us. I mean, it’s not like we’re flamers or anything, but we have no desire to go back in the closet, and I’m not sure we could ever put the genie back in the bottle, even if we wanted to. Most importantly though, we’re monogamous . . . there’s no way we’d be unfaithful to each other.

“Are you saying you’d disqualify us for the Page Program, just because we’re out?”

“No, not at all,” the senator said. “In fact, if you wanted to show up in drag, although I’m sure some of the senators would have a problem with it, so long as it was in the female page uniform, we couldn’t discriminate against you for it. I just suggest you be discrete is all.”

“Senator, Trevor and I will do the best we can, but with four gay guys sharing an apartment, I fear that word’s bound to get out eventually.”

“Who said you’d be staying in an apartment?” the senator asked. “No, no, no, we’d never put you up in an apartment. For one thing, the rents in the district are astronomical. For another, there’s the whole safety issue. We can’t have sixteen-year-olds running around unsupervised. The parents would give us hell. No, we have a couple of dormitories set up, just for the Page Program. One for the Senate, and one for the House.”

This was definitely news to me. I was really looking forward to the four of us being free and on our own for the summer, and now it turned out we’d be under adult supervision after all. And there was the matter of David and Jeremy, who would be interning in the White House. Where did they fit in?

“Senator, what about our friends, David Reynolds and Jeremy Kimball? They’ll be interning at the White House. I thought the whole idea was that we’d all be sharing an apartment nearby, like maybe at the Watergate or something.”

The senator chuckled and said, “And how many millions do you have available to spend on an apartment at the Watergate? You might be able to rent a tiny flat on Capitol Hill . . . more of a dive actually, in a not so nice neighborhood that’s recently been gentrified, but there’s no need for that. We’ll be putting you all up in Daniel Webster Hall, right near the Hart Office Building where I have my Washington office. You’ll all have your own dorm room with a private bath for the four of you, and for your $600 per month each, you’ll get breakfast and dinner included, so it’s a pretty good deal. Now as far as your friends are concerned, even though the residence is intended for Senate pages, it’s a very straight shot up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. They’ll have full use of the limos we all use to get back and forth between the White House and the Hill.”

“What about parking for our cars?” I asked. “Not that I have a car, since I don’t have a license. In fact, I’ll be missing out on Driver’s Ed this year but, hey, the internship is way more important. I’ll go to a private driving school if I have to. Trevor, however, wanted to bring his Jetta with him, and David and Jeremy wanted to bring at least one of their cars along. . . .”

Shaking his head, the senator said, “Sorry to disappoint you boys, but the answer is, ‘No’. Private cars are not allowed to be kept by the pages, unless they stay off-site and live locally with a relative or adult friend, and even then, they are not provided with parking. But why would you want to drive in Washington?” the senator asked. Putting up his hands in a defensive manner, he answered his own question saying, “I know, you’re teenagers, but a car is a liability ‘inside the beltway’. We have an excellent Metro and you can literally get everywhere without the need of a car. I strongly suggest you take advantage of all that DC has to offer by Metro and by bus,” he said.

“So does this mean I’m in?” I asked.

“No, Kurt,” the senator said, “it’s a highly competitive application process, but I seriously doubt that any of the other applicants will have a Congressional Gold Medal,” he said with a grin. “You and Trevor, with recommendations from one of the most senior members of the Senate and from the President himself stand to be near the top of the applicant pool. Seriously, I’ll look forward to working with you this summer.”

The senator shook my hand firmly and showed me to the door. It was a good interview and he had me smiling to myself.

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