Warned that a publication would soon out him as gay, a Republican congressman decided in 1996 to come out voluntarily. Before telling the world, though, he first told his closest political friend, fellow Arizonan John McCain.

"There's something personal that's going to come out that I need you to know about me," Jim Kolbe recalled last week at a "Big Tent" luncheon of gay Log Cabin Republicans during the Republican National Convention.

"At that point (Mc ...

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