CongressionalBadBoys.com | home | Hinson Jon Clifton Hinson Republican, Mississippi (1979-1981) The Honorable Jon Hinson, conservative Republican, was arrested on oral sodomy charges in 1981 by the U. S. Capitol police in a restroom in the Longworth House Office Building.  A male employee of the Library of Congress, who is black, was arrested along with Hinson, who is white.  After his arrest, Hinson spent time in seclusion at Sibley Hospital, undergoing psychiatric treatment.  He pleaded not guilty to attempted sodomy.   Meanwhile, the Honorable Trent Lott tried repeatedly to get Hinson to resign after this incident, or Lott would take it to the Republican Caucus and possibly strip him of his committee assignments, the first step toward censure.   Two years earlier, Hinson, who had been an aide to then congressman Thad Cochrane, survived a fire that killed nine individuals at the Cinema Follies, a Washington theater that catered to a gay clientele.  He was rescued under a pile of bodies, only one of four men who survived.   And he was reelected to Congress . . . from Mississippi.  Said W. D. (Billy) Mounger, a Republican and once a staunch supporter of Hinson:  "You'd think a man who had acknowledged frequenting a homosexual theater would have been run out of Mississippi.  But some folks would rather have a queer conservative than an macho liberal, and they may be right."  [For other pearls of wisdom, check the Quote Board]. He resigned his seat in April 1981, never returning to Mississippi.  He later acknowledged his homosexuality and became active in the gay-rights movement.  He helped organize "Virginians for Justice" and fought against the ban on gays in the military.  Hinson died of AIDS, at age 53.  Sources:  "Hinson, Facing a Morals Charge, Shuns Clamor to Quite Congress," New York Times, Mar. 9, 1981, A18;  AP, "Jon Hinson Dies at 53," July 25, 1995;  Art Harris, "Hinson's Memory Haunts His Mississippi District," Washington Post, June 17, 1981.