Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.) was outed last week as a member of Harvard's all-male Owl Club, an organization he joined as an undergraduate in 1954.
The Washington Times revealed that Kennedy had updated his personal information on the club's online directory on September 7. Kennedy responded to the revelation by asking the club to remove his name from all official documents, while his spokeswoman Laura Capp claimed "there is zero comparison" between the Owl and the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP), the defunct group Kennedy attacked Judge Samuel Alito for once being affiliated with because, among other things, it supported Princeton’s all-male eating clubs.
"No one can question Sen. Kennedy’s lifelong commitment to fighting for civil rights, equal rights and justice," said Capps.
Indeed, according to the Boston Herald, Harvard University severed its ties to the all-male Owl Club in 1984 precisely because of a federal law pushed by Kennedy. Yet, when asked last week by Boston's WHDH-TV whether he had personally severed all ties with the club, Kennedy said: "I'm not a member; I continue to pay about $100." Pressed by WHDH reporter Andy Hiller to say whether he himself could survive a Judiciary Committee hazing, Kennedy said, "Probably not … probably not."
