Sexpo '76: Gender, Media, and the 1976 Hays-Ray Congressional Sex Scandal

Abstract

Wh e n C a p i t o l h i l l s e C r e t a r y e l i z a b e t h r a y told Washington Post reporters in the spring of 1976 that she had been having an affair with her powerful boss, Rep. Wayne Hays (D-OH), they were not surprised; he had a reputation. Illicit sex had long been a topic of gossip on and around the Hill, but the majority-male press corps avoided reporting on political leaders’ sexual affairs out of a sense that what men did in their “private lives” was their own business and off-limits for public scrutiny. “That’s the sort of thing that legitimate newspaper people don’t write about or don’t even make any implications about,” White House