Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania’s longest-serving United States senator and a longtime supporter of and advocate for the LGBT community, died last weekend at age 82.
Specter, who served in the Senate from 1980-2010, died Oct. 14 of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Specter served most of his Senate career as a Republican but, in 2009, announced he was switching parties to become a Democrat, a decision that drew skepticism from some Democrats and welcome from many others.
In a statement this week, President Obama called Specter the consummate “fighter.”
“From his days stamping out corruption as a prosecutor in Philadelphia to his three decades of service in the Senate, Arlen was fiercely independent, never putting party or ideology ahead of the people he was chosen to serve,” the president said.
Mayor Michael Nutter said the former senator “cared about people, gave voice to the voiceless and stood up for everyday Philadelphians, Pennsylvanians and Americans at every opportunity.”
Throughout his Senate career, Specter often broke ranks with more conservative Republicans, including on a number of LGBT-rights issues. He cosponsored the LGBT-inclusive hate-crimes law each session since its inception in 1997. He voted for its eventual passage in 2009 and was acknowledged by President Obama when he signed the bill, named in part for slain gay college student Matthew Shepard, into law.
In one of his last Senate votes, Specter supported the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers, which he voted against in 1993.
He was a consistent cosponsor of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, and cosponsored a bill that sought to provide equal benefits to same-sex domestic partners of federal employees as well as one that looked to treat same-sex binational couples equal to heterosexual couples.
Specter turned heads in 2009 when he announced he was in favor of repealing the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents the government from recognizing same-sex marriage, and for which he voted in 1996.
He told PGN at that time that he had been in a “more traditional” mindset when DOMA arose and that there was “a very different mood in the country when that bill was passed, a very different mood.”
Abbe Fletman, a member of the local LGBT coalition that supported Specter’s 2009 re-election campaign, noted that, when he left office in 2010, he had a 96-percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign.
“He started out pretty good and just evolved to be even better on our issues,” Fletman said.
Micah Mahjoubian also worked on the coalition and said he was proud to have the opportunity to work on Specter’s behalf because he was “the kind of public servant I truly admire.”
“As a strong advocate of civil rights, women’s rights, LGBT equality and critical health-care funding, he always did the right thing, even if it hurt him politically,” Mahjoubian said. “Washington would be a better place if there were more like him there today.”
Specter, a former Air Force lieutenant, initially was a Democrat but switched to Republican in the mid-1960s before taking on the city’s district attorney position, which he held until 1974.
The evolution that brought him back to the Democratic Party included several key votes that earned him the Republican In Name Only moniker, such as his crucial 2008 vote in favor of President Obama’s stimulus package.
“As his party continued moving toward the right, he remained a voice of moderation,” she said. “He was part of a strain of the Republican Party that is almost an endangered species today.”
His more-recent party switch ultimately didn’t enable him to win re-election in 2009, when he lost to challenger Joe Sestak, who eventually lost to Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
Specter was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2005 but remained in office during his treatments. The cancer returned in 2008 but that did not stop his political aspirations.
He told PGN in 2009 that he would consider retirement “when I felt I was no longer able to make a significant contribution to the Senate.”
At that time, he said he frequently played squash and lifted weights every day. He bristled at the idea of being forced out of political office for his age.
“When the age question comes up, I always quote the baseball player Satchel Paige: ‘If you didn’t know your age, how old would you think you were?’ I think I’d say 37, and I’d only pick 37 because I don’t think people would believe 17.”
After leaving the Senate, Specter took on a teaching position at University of Pennsylvania’s law school. He announced this past summer that his cancer had returned.
A funeral was held Tuesday in Penn Valley. Obama issued a presidential proclamation ordering all government flags to be flown at half-staff the day of the funeral.