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Jon Clifton Hinson (March 16, 1942 – July 21, 1995) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. representative for Mississippi's 4th congressional district from 1979 to 1981. Following his 1981 resignation after his arrest for engaging in a Homosexuality act, he became an LGBTQ activist in metropolitan Washington D.C.
Hinson graduated from the University of Mississippi at Oxford in 1964, and joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve, in which he served until 1970.
On August 11, 1979, Hinson married Cynthia Lee Johnson in Alexandria, VA. The couple separated on November 22, 1987.Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Marriage Records, 1936-2014 database. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Their marriage was dissolved by divorce on March 29, 1989.Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Divorce Records, 1918-2014 database. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
In 1980, Hinson admitted that in 1976, while an aide to Cochran, he had been arrested for committing an obscene act Associated Press after he exposed himself to an undercover policeman at the Iwo Jima Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery. Hinson then denied that he was homosexual and blamed his problems on alcoholism. He also said that he had reformed and refused to yield to demands that he resign. He won re-election on November 4, 1980, with a plurality of 39.0 percent of the vote. The Independent Leslie B. McLemore polled 29.8 percent, and Democrat Britt Singletary received 29.4 percent.
Hinson, who was married, was arrested again on February 4, 1981, and charged with attempted sodomy for performing fellatio on a male employee of the Library of Congress in a restroom of the Longworth Building of the House of Representatives. After an investigation prompted by complaints about similar incidents in the same restroom, Hinson was charged with sodomy.
At the time, homosexual acts, even between consenting adults, were a criminal offense. The charge was a felony that could have resulted in up to ten years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. Since both parties were consenting adults (and social attitudes were changing), the United States attorney's office reduced the charge to a misdemeanor. Facing a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine, Hinson pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted sodomy the following day and was released without bail pending a trial scheduled for May 4, 1981. Soon thereafter, he checked himself into Sibley Memorial Hospital for professional care. Hinson later received a 30-day jail sentence, which was suspended, and a year's probation, on condition that he continue counseling and treatment.
After publicly acknowledging that he was gay, he became a gay rights activist, organizing lobbying groups and fighting against the ban on gays in the military. He lived the rest of his life in Alexandria, Virginia, and later Silver Spring, Maryland.
Hinson's body was cremation. His ashes were buried in his native Tylertown, Mississippi, after a private service. By then from his wife Cynthia, Hinson was survived by a brother, Robert Hinson of Gulfport, Mississippi.
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