Gay rights activists are asking the question, “Could antigay Congressmember Randy “Duke” Cunningham of San Diego be gay?” In a speech delivered last month before more than 200 people at a gay pride town hall meeting in Washington, D.C., Elizabeth Birch, outgoing executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, recalled an encounter from eight years ago when she met with a conservative congressmember who effectively expressed latent same-sex desires to her and Daniel Zingale, HRC’s political director at the time.

In the speech, Birch recalled her early days with the HRC and a meeting with a conservative Republican member of Congress who had made negative remarks about gays. Birch went on to describe him as a family man who had served in Vietnam. Following the meeting, after the congressmember’s aides had left the room, the congressmember allegedly asked for Birch and Zingale to remain in the room, where he asked them, “So how do you know… you know, how do you know if you’re that way?”

Birch went on to say that the congressmember admitted that he had “loved men” at times.

A reporter with the Washington Blade latched on to the story and began to research meetings that Birch had with members of Congress in 1995 and came to the conclusion that she was talking about Randall “Duke” Cunningham, whom she said she met with after Cunningham referred to gays as “homos” on the floor of the House of Representatives. Cunningham represents California’s 50th District.

According to transcripts of Birch’s D.C. speech, she said that on the day following the meeting, “He went to the floor the next day and apologized for his comments. Since then, he has voted almost always wrong. But he’s still, I’m sure, still living in his own personal hell.”

Members of the primarily gay and lesbian San Diego Democratic Club, who met with Birch in 1996 prior to the Republican National Convention, held in San Diego, say that Birch told a similar story about Cunningham when she met with them, though she never spoke of him saying that he had “loved men.”

“I’m not sure I remember the same details she does,” Doug Case of the San Diego Democratic Club told the Gay and Lesbian Times. “I don’t think that there was any sense that he was gay. She basically told it to us as a bizarre story, certainly implying that he may have had gay feelings at one time or another.”

Representatives from Cunningham’s office say that the congressmember has never met with Birch. Harmony Allen, Cunningham’s press secretary, also said the details of Birch’s story don’t fit the congressmember. In her speech Birch claimed the congressmember had five children, while Cunningham has three children. Birch also said that the congressmember she was talking about served three tours in Vietnam. Cunningham, a decorated fighter pilot, served just two tours.

“The recent article in the Washington Blade is simply untruthful and irresponsible,” Cunningham said in a statement to the Gay and Lesbian Times. “I am a heterosexual — always have been, always will be. The fact is, the ‘alleged meeting’ never took place. It is unfortunate that the Blade went ahead and printed a blatantly false article based on reports from members of the Democratic Club in San Diego. It’s gutter politics, pure and simple.”

Case, one of the members of the Democratic Club interviewed by the Blade, told the paper he didn’t come away from his meeting with Birch in 1996 thinking that Cunningham was a “closet case.”

“I think we all agreed that if he was gay we want him to go back to the other side,” Case added. “It certainly was an interesting and intriguing story because it made for the possibility that he may have questioned his own sexuality.”

Since making the speech, Birch has refused to comment on whether she has met with Cunningham or if she based her story on private comments that Cunningham may have made to her and Zingale.

“There was more than one person who has expressed curiosity about being gay,” Birch told the Washington Blade about the speech in question. “I scrambled the facts. I created a composite.”

Zingale, who was allegedly present at the meeting, also told the Blade he has no recollection of having attended a meeting where both Cunningham and Birch were present.

“[The Washington Blade] printed the article even after the only three people who were present at the supposed meeting on which the article is based denied the meeting ever took place,” Cunningham stated. “Elizabeth Birch admitted she fabricated the story (scrambled the facts) to ‘teach a lesson.’ The only lessons learned from this article are that Ms. Birch and the Washington Blade have zero credibility and will go to any level of personal destruction to further their cause. I thought ‘human rights’ represented fairness. The Washington Blade has proven that they will never be a reputable news organization. They continue to maintain their status as a tabloid rag.”

Prior to making the speech, Birch had already announced that she plans to step down from her post as the executive director of the HRC at the end of the year. Cunningham, who did apologize for his comments about gays in 1996, scored only 17 points out of a possible 100 on HRC’s current congressional scorecard, which rates how supportive congressmembers are of gay rights issues.