Was Hoover Gay? 'J. Edgar' Screenwrer Dt Lance Black Opens His Fil - WSJ

Contents:

• J. EDGAR HOOVER: GAY OR JT A MAN WHO HAS SEX WH MEN?
• WAS DR. DEVON HOOVER GAY? ALL ABOUT HIS DEATH, SEXUALY, AND MORE
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• J. EDGAR HOOVER OF THE FBI WAS BOTH BLACK AND GAY? HISTORIANS SPEAK OUT
• UNIQUELY NASTY: J. EDGAR HOOVER'S WAR ON GAYS
• WAS HOOVER GAY? 'J. EDGAR' SCREENWRER DT LANCE BLACK OPENS HIS FIL

J. EDGAR HOOVER: GAY OR JT A MAN WHO HAS SEX WH MEN?

Filmgoers never see the s-long romance between the former FBI director, and his number two, Cly Tolson, nsummated, but there's plenty of lovg glanc, hand-holdg and one scene wh an aggrsive, long, ep was the most powerful man Ameri, who died 1972 -- three years after the Stonewall rts marked the morn gay civil rights movement -- homosexual? "In public, Hoover waged a ventta agast homosexuals and kept "nfintial and secret" fil on the sex liv of ngrsmen and prints. Dissociatn -- nyg homosexualy, but displayg sexual behavr -- is "not unmon, " acrdg to Dr.

Jack Drcher, a New York Cy psychiatrist who is an expert genr and wh strong attractns to other men n have different gre of acceptance om beg fully closeted to beg openly gay. And even if they are homosexually self-aware, they n embrace or reject publicly.

WAS DR. DEVON HOOVER GAY? ALL ABOUT HIS DEATH, SEXUALY, AND MORE

"Some men do not publicly intify as gay, regardls of their sexual behavr. "Even the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn (CDC) tracks a group that is not labeled "gay" but "men who have sex wh men.

Joseph McCarthy his anti-munist mpaign of the 1950s and who succsfully nvicted Juli and Ethel Rosenberg of pnage, nied he was gay, spe an attractn to, who died of AIDS 1986, was a ntemporary of Hoover and acrdg to one bgraphy, the two attend sex parti together New York the was characterized a scene om Tony Kchner's play, "Angels Ameri, " speakg to his doctor: ".. "In a 2004 bgraphy by Richard Hack, "Puppetmaster, " which was culled om the not of Tman Capote, who had begun terviews on Hoover and Tolson's relatnship, the thor says Hoover was not gay, but suggts the man was virly turned on by the smut he llected on 200-page secret document was on the extracurricular activi of Capote himself, who was openly Anthony Summers, who exposed the secret sex life of Hoover his 1993 book, "Official and Confintial: The Secret Life of J.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

And Bra are issug a remake of the medil expert told Summers that Hoover was "strongly predomant homosexual orientatn" and another tegorized him as a "bisexual wh failed heterosexualy. "I didn't really unrstand anythg about homosexualy at the time, " said Stuart. "Hoover promoted men cled to homosexual discretns, cludg Tolson, who had barely 18 months experience wh the FBI when he beme Hoover's pair ed to make "scy jok" about some of the other agents, like Melv Purvis, who was a hero for arrtg John Dillger, acrdg to 's son shared his father's 500-letter rrponnce wh Hoover, who teased the good-lookg, blond-haired agent as "the Clark Gable of the FBI, " even though he was were timate and one was highly charged wh nuendo, as Hoover referred to himself as the "Chairman of the Moral Uplift Squad.

In 1978 when the actrs was asked to ment on Ana Bryant's anti-gay mpaign, Merman told the reporter, "Some of my bt iends are homosexual.

"Harry Hay, founr of the Mattache Society, one of the first gay rights anizatns, nfirmed that Hoover and Tolson sat box owned by and ed exclively by gay men at their racg hnt Del Mar California.

J. EDGAR HOOVER OF THE FBI WAS BOTH BLACK AND GAY? HISTORIANS SPEAK OUT

"He was fely troubled by homosexualy, " she said 1990, "and my hband's not would have proved that... I might stir a kettle of worms by makg that statement, but everybody then unrstood that he was a homosexual, not jt the doctors.

"He was totally self-servg and the way which he was a reprsed homosexual didn't require him to abe dividual rights and human liberti the way he did, " said Summers.

Edgar Hoover was "probably good for the untry, " and whether he was homosexual or not mak no difference.

UNIQUELY NASTY: J. EDGAR HOOVER'S WAR ON GAYS

You n love a person and whether go to the realm of beg gay or not, is here nor there. "A younger generatn of gays was moved by the film precisely bee portrayed such an inic figure's stggle wh his sexualy.

"The dience I was clearly rooted for Hoover to be gay and to have happs his sex and love life, " said Ben Ryan, a 33-year-old novelist om New York Cy. ""Anyone their right md would see this movie and say, 'Oh, well, of urse Hoover was gay, '" he said.

WAS HOOVER GAY? 'J. EDGAR' SCREENWRER DT LANCE BLACK OPENS HIS FIL

"The more spic among might thk that the filmmakers were still aaid of Hoover's ghost sug them for libel if they jt put right out there that he was gay. Dpe rampant speculatn — that Hoover was gay, a cross-drser or had no sex life — the tth about his sex life is nearly impossible to p down. He lived an era when beg outed as gay would st anyone his reer and reputatn, and he was not one to risk such story that Hoover, a lifelong bachelor, participated cross-drsg, all-male sex parti New York hotel rooms, as reported by Brish wrer Anthony Summers a 1993 bgraphy, has been wily bunked by historians.