New Book Suggts Richard Nixon Had a Gay Affair | LAist

Contents:

• OPN WAS NIXON GAY? NO, BUT THAT DON’T STOP THE MOR L.
• RUMORS SURFACE THAT NIXON WAS GAY
• 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
• ‘NIXON’S DARKT SECRETS’: NEW BGRAPHY DIGS UP MORS OF RICHARD NIXON’S GAY AFFAIR WH MAFIA BANKER
• RICHARD NIXON ARGU GAYS ARE 'BORN THAT WAY' IN NEWLY-RELEASED WHE HOE TAP

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

But gay?

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. “Was Nixon’s tough-guy attu toward gays jt a ver for his own homosexualy, bisexualy or asexualy? ”The book attempts to buttrs the homosexual allegatn by repeatg mors that the twice-divorced Rebozo, known as a ladi’ man, was gay.

Others, evintly, are too good to, the flimsy report of Nixon's "gay affair". 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. (Summers, the thor who was Fulsom’s source that Nixon pal Rebozo was gay, also dug up this far-fetched tale.

RUMORS SURFACE THAT NIXON WAS GAY

)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. 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.

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.

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

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. Gay-rights activist and award-wng thor Larry Kramer is 79 and failg health, but that won’t fe the impact of his latt bombshell project: the first 800-page stalment of a two-part history of Ameri that tells of the secret gay life of figur om Alexanr Haton, Gee Washgton and Abraham Lln to Mark Twa, Herman Melville and Richard Amerin People: Volume 1, subtled Search for My Heart, has taken nearly 40 years to plete and may prove to be one of the most provotive historil, or psdo-historil, acunts of Amerin, who is -founr of Aids servic group Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the Aids Coaln to Unleash Power (Act Up), as well as a chronicler of queer life wh plays cludg The Normal Heart and The Dty of Me, said the book is a labour of love signed to unter what he feels to be the excln of gays – or gay life – om history books.

There has never been any history book wrten where the gay people have been the history om the ’s ridiculo to thk we haven’t been here for ever. ”The Amerin People, Volume I: Search for My Heart is g nsternatn among historians, who say there is ltle evince to back Kramer’s Chernow, thor of an epic 2004 bgraphy of Alexanr Haton – the statman Kramer claims was at least bisexual if not entirely gay – utns agast “ransackg history service of a polil agenda” also claims that John Wilk Booth assassated Abraham Lln not bee he was unhappy that the South was losg the civil war, but bee Lln had spurned him. We ll gaydar – the thg straight historians don’t have.

He had a huge gay life. The thor sisted should clu gay sex; Streisand retorted that her tentn was “to promote the ia of everyone’s right to love. Gay or straight!

NEW BOOK SUGGTS RICHARD NIXON HAD A GAY AFFAIR

”The Amerin People is likely to rankle wh historians as there is no evince many of historil figur were gay. He claims Lln bgrapher Doris Kearns Goodw beme “hysteril” at the suggtn of homosexual tennci the print but this was, he add an terview wh NPR, “only bee she didn’t wre first” book, which has been labelled as a novel to avoid legal plitns, has divid US reviewers.

Whether is absolutely accurate or not, The Amerin People speaks to a need across gay and straight muni to revise historil acunts om which sexual orientatn was absent. “The gay historil timele tends to go back as far as Osr Wil and no further, ” said Hickl.

”From some quarters there have been lls for a exclively gay branch of archaeology directed solely at tablishg sexual orientatn (Kramer claims trac of semen found the stools of English settlers prove his pot) where gay rights warrrs sought to fe themselv as gay fiance of the stigma around Aids, Hickl nsirs that sexual orientatn is no longer a sgular marker of inty. Thirty five years sce HIV/Aids was intified there is still no cure, and vlence agast gay people is creasg several parts of the world. “We should have our own army as gays, ” he told The Advote.

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

Rebozo himself was mored to have had a gay affair his youth wh a man named Donald Gunn and then married Dunn's sister — but the woman said their 4-year marriage was never — who was mored to have mafia ti — enjoyed special perks as the iend of the print: he reportedly got his own office and bedroom at the Whe Hoe, he flew on Air Force One and he got to Nixon's hotel sue durg a trip to Europe. Of urse, 's worth notg that Nixon publicly said nasty thgs about gays. When one of his close ais was ught havg sex wh a sailor a YMCA, Nixon lled him "ill" and said that gays "nnot be plac of high tst.

" The vio above also ptur some of his anti-gay views. But Roosevelt's rerd has a few blemish, one of which had a direct impact on gay Amerins. "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.

Vannberg Jr., who lost a job Print Eisenhower's admistratn when Hoover told Eisenhower that Vannberg was gay. " That fn clud, evably, homosexualy. The ratnale was that gay people were likely to be blackmailed and therefore posed a threat to natnal secury.

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

"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.

‘NIXON’S DARKT SECRETS’: NEW BGRAPHY DIGS UP MORS OF RICHARD NIXON’S GAY AFFAIR WH MAFIA BANKER

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.

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. The Briggs Iniative, which would have barred gays and lbians om teachg the state's public schools -- and the proposn was ed voted down.

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

When he ran for reelectn 1980, he agreed to a gay rights plank the Democratic Party platform, a first.

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. 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. "Perhaps his staff felt he had to, sce many of his New Right supporters have raised money by mpaigng agast homosexuals.