Opn | Was Nixon gay? No, but that don’t stop the mor l. - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• WAS RICHARD NIXON GAY?LET’S LOOK AT THE 37TH PRINT’S SEXUALYJONATHAN POLETTI·FOLLOWPUBLISHED ???????????·7 M READ·MAY 1, 2020--3SHAREAT A WASHGTON D.C. DNER PARTY, A JOURNALIST DROPPED A FORK ON THE FLOOR. PICKG UP, SHE NOTICED THAT PRINT NIXON AND HIS CLOSE IEND BEBE REBOZO WERE HOLDG HANDS UNR THE TABLE.THE SCENE IS FOUND ALL THE BGRAPHI—WH A LOT OF OTHER TALK ABOUT THE TWO MEN. THEY ME ACROSS, AS AN AI TO LYNDON JOHNSON NOT, “CLOSE LIKE LOVERS.” BUT STILL SEEMS CREDIBLE TO THK THAT RICHARD NIXON WAS GAY.RICHARD NIXON (EDED)WASHGTON MONORED THE SUATN QUIETLY.
• RUMORS SURFACE THAT NIXON WAS GAY
• OPN WAS NIXON GAY? NO, BUT THAT DON’T STOP THE MOR L.
• RICHARD NIXON ARGU GAYS ARE 'BORN THAT WAY' IN NEWLY-RELEASED WHE HOE TAP
• DID NIXON HAVE A GAY AFFAIR WH A MAFIA FIXER? FET WATERGATE. A NEW BOOK CLAIMS AMERI'S MOST RPT PRINT HID A FAR MORE PERSONAL SNDAL...
• ‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’
• RICHARD NIXON'S ANTI-GAY RANT: FORMER PRINT SLAMS TV SERI, ROMAN RULERS IN 1970S AUD
• CYNTHIA NIXON: I'M GAY BY CHOICE
• WERE LLN AND NIXON GAY? THE ‘HISTORY’ BOOK THAT IS DIVIDG AMERI
• NEW BOOK SUGGTS RICHARD NIXON HAD A GAY AFFAIR
• DID RICHARD NIXON HAVE A GAY AFFAIR WH A KEY BISYNE BSMAN?
• BOOK REVEALS NIXON'S FEELGS ON GAY PEOPLE, WOMEN, KISSGER
• WE HAVE HAD A GAY PRINT, JT NOT NIXON

WAS RICHARD NIXON GAY?LET’S LOOK AT THE 37TH PRINT’S SEXUALYJONATHAN POLETTI·FOLLOWPUBLISHED ???????????·7 M READ·MAY 1, 2020--3SHAREAT A WASHGTON D.C. DNER PARTY, A JOURNALIST DROPPED A FORK ON THE FLOOR. PICKG UP, SHE NOTICED THAT PRINT NIXON AND HIS CLOSE IEND BEBE REBOZO WERE HOLDG HANDS UNR THE TABLE.THE SCENE IS FOUND ALL THE BGRAPHI—WH A LOT OF OTHER TALK ABOUT THE TWO MEN. THEY ME ACROSS, AS AN AI TO LYNDON JOHNSON NOT, “CLOSE LIKE LOVERS.” BUT STILL SEEMS CREDIBLE TO THK THAT RICHARD NIXON WAS GAY.RICHARD NIXON (EDED)WASHGTON MONORED THE SUATN QUIETLY.

Now the gay mors are beg draped over Richard Nixon, the dark, homophobic two-term print doomed by the 1972 Watergate the upg b Nixon's Darkt Secrets, former UPI Whe Hoe reporter Don Fulsom, armed wh new eyewns terviews and documents, suggts a shockg "homosexual nature" the relatnship between Nixon and his bt iend Bebe Rebozo, the print's alleged mob bagman who was at Nixon's si when he there is no evince of any sexual enunters—as wh the Hoover mors played out the new Clt Eastwood movie J. For example, Fulsom reveals three stanc of the two men holdg hands, sometim public, one time unr a dner table, somethg Nixon did rarely, if ever, wh wife quot a former Time reporter who scribed a long hand-holdg terlu that led her to scribe the relatnship as "reprsed homosexualy.

Acrdg to a book to be released Tuday, "Nixon's Darkt Secrets, " the former print and his bt iend, Charl "Bebe" Rebozo, had a relatnship of a "possibly homosexual nature. When I asked Fulsom about the media reactn, he said that acunts scribg his "explosive revelatns" that Nixon "rried on a sizzlg gay love affair" exaggerated his fdgs, and he admted that, whout any photos showg Nixon and Rebozo flagrante licto, there is "no evince actually happened. )Although the Hoover--drag mor has been wily discreded, has nohels entered popular folklore — poetic retributn agast the homophobic G-man whose sex-filled dossiers terrorized Washgton for half a century.

RUMORS SURFACE THAT NIXON WAS GAY

It is no accint that the recent enzy of historil gay "outgs" — whether of Lln or Hoover or Nixon — is takg place when homosexualy has e out of the closet and same-sex marriage has bee a proment part of the legislative agenda many plac. "Hoover thought many left-leang Amerins posed a threat to the natn, and he thought the same of gay people -- even though there's reason to believe Hoover was gay himself and a long-term relatnship wh ai Cly Tolson. "Many loyal Amerins, by reason of stabily, alholism, homosexualy, or prev tennci to associate wh Communist-ont groups, are untentnally secury risks, " Ike himself wrote, although he also admted feelg guilty over his treatment of Vannberg.

Civil Service Commissn lifted the orr 1975, and the Department of Defense, which had ed to ny secury clearanc to gays and lbians, gradually ceased s "tensive qutng of gays... JohnsonKennedy and Johnson may have never thought their civil rights law would be terpreted as protectg LGBT people, but Kennedy, at least, would probably approve -- his bt iend was a gay man, Lem Billgs.

OPN WAS NIXON GAY? NO, BUT THAT DON’T STOP THE MOR L.

Also, the EEOC has held that Tle VII's protectns extend to discrimatn agast gay, lbian, and bisexual employe, if the discrimatn aris out of genr stereotyp. " Its Office of Civil Rights will therefore vtigate such claims, offerg a means of relief for transgenr and, to some extent, lbian, gay, and bisexual CarterCarter, who intifi as a "born-aga" Christian, is proof that ep relig fah need not go hand hand wh homophobia.

In 1976, as a ndidate, he had ma clear he would sign a gay rights bill, and 1977, durg his princy, the first-ever gay and lbian legatn vised the Whe Hoe to discs policy issu wh admistratn officials. He has famoly said, "I never knew of any word or actn of J Christ that discrimated agast anyone, " and has endorsed marriage ReaganReagan's greatt effect on the gay populatn was undoubtedly his rponse, or lack thereof, to a disease that took the liv of many gay men.

RICHARD NIXON ARGU GAYS ARE 'BORN THAT WAY' IN NEWLY-RELEASED WHE HOE TAP

Although the former actor was apparently personally fortable wh gay people, he drew much of his support om the antigay relig right, such as Jerry Falwell and his so-lled Moral Majory, and officials his admistratn clud such notor homophob as Gary Ber and Pat Buchanan. "In 2012, Nixon, who had intified as bisexual, went on the rerd and nfirmed that bisexualy is not a choice after takg a lot of heat for sayg was her choice to be a "gay" relatnship wh Maroni. I believe we all have different ways we me to the gay muny and we n't and shouldn't be pigeon-holed to one cultural narrative which n be unclive and disempowerg.

Nero, of urse, was, a public way, wh a boy then adds, "By God, I am not gog to have a suatn where we pass along a law ditg, 'Well, now, kids, jt go out and be gay. In that clip, Nixon acced the popular TV seri "All the Fay" of "glorifyg homosexualy, " before notg, "I don't even want to shake hands wh anybody om San Francis! Still, 2011, Don Fulsom's book Nixon's Darkt Secrets: The Insi Story of Ameri's Most Troubled Print, claimed that the former print had engaged a gay affair wh Charl "Bebe" Rebozo, a Florida banker apparently wh ti to the You GoAbraham Llnvia WikiCommonsThe 16th print of the Uned Stat has long been mored to have been gay.

Richard NixonAP UPI Whe Hoe reporter Don Fulsom, who penned the new memoir Nixon's Darkt Secrets, suggted a "homosexual nature" the relatnship between the former U.

DID NIXON HAVE A GAY AFFAIR WH A MAFIA FIXER? FET WATERGATE. A NEW BOOK CLAIMS AMERI'S MOST RPT PRINT HID A FAR MORE PERSONAL SNDAL...

" Barack ObamaBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty ImagHilary CltonSean Gardner via Getty ImagHistorilly anti-gay pund Bryan Fischer ma ments on his rad show last September that Hilary Clton uld be "our first lbian print.

Loewen wrote about Buchanan's alleged homosexualy his book Li Across he stated, "I'm sure that Buchanan was gay, " and poted to Buchanan's relatnship wh William Ruf Kg, a senator om Washgton Bla add: Loewen said ntemporary rerds dite the two men were separable, and wags would refer to them as "the Siame tws. Print had a ser drk problem, beat his wife and — by the time he was gurated 1969 — had lks gog back two s to the Mafia, cludg wh New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then Ameri's most powerful the most extraordary claim is that the homophobic Nixon may have been gay himself. If te, would provi a fascatg sight to the motivatn and behavur of a notorly secretive argu that Nixon may have had an affair wh his bt iend and nfidant, a Mafia‑nnected Florida wheeler-aler named Charl 'Bebe' Rebozo who was even more crooked than book, Nixon's Darkt Secrets, is out next month — by cince at the same time as the UK release of a new film directed by Clt Eastwood about another supposed closet gay among Washgton's 20th-century hard men.

‘I AM GAY – BUT I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY’

'They held hands on ocsn, and both men had problems wh nsummatg physil relatnships wh women, but we found no evince that Nixon was actively homosexual, ' Summers told me this week. You so obvly nnot be gay, was her implitn, bee this is good was 2006, a full five years before Lady Gaga would set the Born This Way argument atop s unassailable cultural perch, but even then the popular unrstandg of orientatn was that was somethg you were born wh, somethg you uldn’t change.

But what feels most accurate to say is that I’m gay – but I wasn’t born this people may fd their sir changg directn - and n't jt be explaed as experimentatn (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)In 1977, jt over 10% of Amerins thought gayns was somethg you were born wh, acrdg to Gallup.

RICHARD NIXON'S ANTI-GAY RANT: FORMER PRINT SLAMS TV SERI, ROMAN RULERS IN 1970S AUD

Throughout the same perd, the number of Amerins who believe homosexualy is “due to someone’s upbrgg/environment” fell om jt unr 60% to ias reached cril mass pop culture, first wh Lady Gaga’s 2011 Born This Way and one year later wh Macklemore’s Same Love, the chos of which has a gay person sgg “I n’t change even if I tried, even if I wanted to. ” Around the same time, the Human Rights Campaign clared unequivolly that “Beg gay is not a choice, ” and to claim that is “giv unwarranted crence to roundly disproven practic such as nversn or reparative therapy. ”People who challenge the Born This Way narrative are often st as homophobic, and their thkg is nsired backwardAs Jane Ward not Not Gay: Sex Between Straight Whe Men, what’s tertg about many of the claims is how transparent their speakers are wh their polil motivatns.

CYNTHIA NIXON: I'M GAY BY CHOICE

“Such statements, ” she wr, “fe blogil acunts wh an obligatory and nearly ercive force, suggtg that anyone who scrib homosexual sire as a choice or social nstctn is playg to the hands of the enemy. ” People who challenge the Born This Way narrative are often st as homophobic, and their thkg is nsired backward – even if they are themselv, for example, Cynthia Nixon of Sex and The Cy fame. ”Gay rights do not have to hge on a geic explanatn for sexualy (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)For Aravosis, and many gay activists like him, the public will only accept and affirm gay people if they thk they were born gay.

Patrick Grzanka, Assistant Profsor of Psychology at Universy of Tennsee, for stance, has shown that some people who believe that homosexualy is nate still hold negative views of gays. In fact, the homophobic and non-homophobic rponnts he studied shared siar levels of belief a Born This Way Samantha Allen not at The Daily Beast, the growg public support for gays and lbians has grown out of proportn wh the rise the number of people who believe homosexualy is fixed at birth; would be unlikely that this small change opn uld expla the spike support for gay marriage, for stance.

“It don’t seem to matter as much whether or not people believe that gay people are born that way as do that they simply know someone who is currently gay, ” Allen spe of the studi, those who ph agast Born This Way narrativ have been heavily cricised by gay activists. Siarly, Ward has received her own hatemail for phg agast the lg LGB narrativ, wh some gays tellg her she’s “worse than Ann Coulter, ” the ntroversial US thor of books like If Democrats Had Any Bras, They’d Be Republins. And when I published my say on choosg to be gay, an irate Amerin lbian activist wrote me that had “jt been nfirmed” to her that my wrg was “directly rponsible for four gay aths Rsia.

WERE LLN AND NIXON GAY? THE ‘HISTORY’ BOOK THAT IS DIVIDG AMERI

There is a unanimo opn that gay “nversn therapy” should be rejectedLet’s first be clear that whatever the origs of our sexual orientatn, there is a unanimo opn that gay “nversn therapy” should be rejected. The efforts are potentially harmful, acrdg to the APA, “bee they prent the view that the sexual orientatn of lbian, gay and bisexual youth is a mental illns of disorr, and they often ame the abily to change one’s sexual orientatn as a personal and moral failure. The APA, for example, while notg that most people experience ltle to no choice over their orientatns, says this of homosexualy’s origs:“Although much rearch has examed the possible geic, hormonal, velopmental, social and cultural fluenc on sexual orientatn, no fdgs have emerged that perm scientists to nclu that sexual orientatn is termed by any particular factor or factors.

NEW BOOK SUGGTS RICHARD NIXON HAD A GAY AFFAIR

”Siarly, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn wr a 2013 statement that while the of heterosexualy and homosexualy are currently unknown, they are likely “multifactorial cludg blogil and behavral roots which may vary between different dividuals and may even vary over time. ” Acrdg to LeVay’s rearch, a specific part of the bra, the third terstial nucls of the anterr hypothalam (INAH-3), is smaller homosexual men than is heterosexual as they might, scientists have stggled to inty any particular gen that nsistently predict the directns of our love and sire (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)Read moreYou n spot the problem wh this study a e away: were the gay bras LeVay studied born that way, or did they bee that way? Another landmark paper on the origs of homosexualy was published 1993 by a geicist named Dean Hamer, who was terted to learn whether homosexualy uld be hered.

Begng om his observatn that there are more gay relativ on a mother’s si than a father’s, Hamer turned his attentn to the X chromosome (which is passed on by the mother).

DID RICHARD NIXON HAVE A GAY AFFAIR WH A KEY BISYNE BSMAN?

Bis the dividual criqu leveled agast each new study announcg some gay gene disvery, there are major methodologil cricisms to make about the entire enterprise general, as Grzanka pots out: “If we look at the raveno pursu, particularly among Amerin scientists, to fd a gay gene, what we see is that the ncln has already been arrived at. ”The other problem wh Born This Way science is summed up nicely by Simon Copland: “Scientists are askg whether homosexualy is natural when we n’t even agree exactly what homosexualy is.

BOOK REVEALS NIXON'S FEELGS ON GAY PEOPLE, WOMEN, KISSGER

” Our sir may exprs themselv many different ways that do not all nform to existg notns of ‘gay’, ‘straight’ or ‘bisexual’ is one of the bt takeaways of Ward’s Not Gay, a peratg analysis of sex between straight whe men.

”Gay or not, our sir are oriented and re-oriented throughout our liv (Cred: Ignac Lehmann)In fact, the straight-intified men Ward studied for her book sometim found themselv suatns that sparked the sire for homosexual sex: aterni, ployments, public rtrooms, etc. Ward thks this qutn is the next ontier of queer I first said I chose to be gay, a queer Amerin journalist challenged me to name the time and date of my choice. I’m claimg that at some pot durg llege, my sexual and romantic sir beme reoriented toward menThkg back to my llege romanc wh women and men, I n beg to unrstand how my own experienc might have helped me to ‘cultivate’ my sire for homosexualy.

WE HAVE HAD A GAY PRINT, JT NOT NIXON

I want to be very clear: I’m not claimg I simply began to ‘grow to’ my homosexualy, or that as I beme more fortable wh beg gay, I allowed myself the eedom to exprs what had always been latent wh me. “Limg our unrstandg of any plex human experience is always gog to be worse than allowg to be plited, ” he gay rights activists pared sexualy to relign - a ccial part of our life that we should be ee to practise however we like (Cred: Ignac Lehamann)So what are we to do wh the Born This Way rhetoric?

“That’s a very narrow unrstandg of what jtice looks like, ” says about the ncern that homophob will want to ‘enurage’ gay people to be straight if there’s no blogil basis for sexualy?

It don’t take too much creativy to image a scenar which homophobic parents, upon beg rmed their fet has ‘the gay gene’, choose what to them may seem the lser of two evils: abortn.