Today’s right-wg mpaign agast “groomers” is Ameri’s latt moral panic. Gog back to the early 20th century, gays were often at the center of nspiracy theori to unrme the ernment.
Contents:
- THE RISE OF THE GAY MAFIA, A POWERFUL CABAL THAT NEVER EXISTED
- THE LONG, SORDID HISTORY OF THE GAY CONSPIRACY THEORY
- THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S SECRET GAY CABAL
- ADAPTED OM SECRET CITY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON BY JAM KIRCHICK. PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY. COPYRIGHT © 2022 BY JAM KIRCHICK. ALL RIGHTS RERVED.
- THE GAY CHURCH
THE RISE OF THE GAY MAFIA, A POWERFUL CABAL THAT NEVER EXISTED
* gay cabal *
But there was a time Amerin history when there was a real fear that a gay mafia—known llectively as “homterns”—existed, wieldg ntrol across Hollywood and throughout the arts and entertament dtri. In his new book Homtern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Morn World, English amic Gregory Woods chronicl the rise of the “homtern, ” explorg how the longstandg fear of homosexual men spurred a century-long paranoia about an alleged gay mafia ntrollg areas of ernment, the arts and amia. In the mid-19th century the pair rrpond about the threat of “perasts”—an antiquated term referrg to men who had sex wh younger men, sce “homosexual” did not yet exist as a label—to their goal of tablishg non-sexual raship between other men.
” This sire to study and fe sexual behavr further phed rearchers to “un-closet” the homosexual, all an effort to mystify a sexual inty that had long been ostracized and stigmatized but never really pned down through scientific quiry. Des later, “homtern” entered Cold War disurse, beg reappropriated by nspiracy theorists that exploed s munist associatn and claimed referred to a longstandg “ternatnal homosexual nspiracy” across the untry, whose one goal was to perate posns the Amerin ernment and urp tradnal Amerin valu of fay and heterosexualy.
Wh Amerins fearful of the tonatn of an atomic bomb and a enzy about polics beg overtaken by munist fectors, the elive figure of the homosexual—known but never seen public; closeted but apparently everywhere—was ripe to explo to spire fear.
THE LONG, SORDID HISTORY OF THE GAY CONSPIRACY THEORY
A new book reveals the fluential -- and targeted -- gay men who served prints om Roosevelt to Clton. * gay cabal *
Woods says that the anxieti around homosexuals Cold War Ameri take some of their orig the social “cleansg” mpaigns enacted Nazi Germany and Soviet Rsia, mpaigns lnched to eradite homosexual men (and other “unwanted” dividuals) om society. The backlash agast homosexuals was only pound by the growg visibily of gay men public life, pecially the arts and entertament dtri, which only pound the ia of an unrground nspiracy of a “gay mafia. ” In 1966, one New York Tim cric mentned the wispread perceptn that bee the men were homosexuals their plays “prent[ed] a badly distorted picture of Amerin women, marriage and society.
Although the men were not “out, ” mors of their sexualy circulated wily Hollywood and galvanized an image of Hollywood beg overn by gay men, many who allegedly wield power and tonomy. All the same, the homtern’s awakeng of fear public life 1950s Ameri monstrat an important narrative, remdg there was a time when the ia of a “gay mafia” lg Hollywood was a legimate ncern. Favalora, who was the most powerful Catholic official Southern Florida om 1994 until last year, stands acced of cultivatg what one group of pissed-off Catholics scrib as a rpt "homosexual superculture" the 195 church, schools, missns, semari, and universi that nstute the Miami Archdce.
If their allegatns are to be believed, for sixteen years Favalora ran his anizatn like the don of a lavenr mob, rewardg his favore homosexual sons and fivg their many discretns—rampant sex, hedonism, embezzlement, alholism, and the railroadg of chaste prits among them—while punishg those wh the temery to pla. A Kd of Gay Hogwarts Wh Palm TreHere are jt some of the un-Catholic behavrs that "Miami Vice" acc Favalora of engagg : He partially owned a pany that manufactured Yohimbe, an aphrodisiac beverage marketed to horny club-kids wh the promise of "the hands-down bt sex of your life. ") Favalora's send- and third--mand, Monsignor William Hennsey and Monsignor Michael Souckar, are both acced by Christefilis of beg active homosexuals—and if they are, that unts among the least of their difficulti wh Catholic fact, the Archdce was a hotbed of sodomy long before Favalora set foot Florida.
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S SECRET GAY CABAL
One semarian who dropped out disgt the 1980s rells a miserable year beg bullied by gay faculty, and the rector, Robert Lynch, fawng over his favore semarian: an attractive upper-classman named Steven O'Hala. "I probably entered [the semary] partially bee I was attracted to the ia of beg a gay environment, " says Fuchs, an ede gay man who now liv wh his hband Washgton, D.
Father Anibal Moral (Right, photo via Archdce of Miami)Moral may or may not have had a light touch wh parish funds—if he did, he's hardly unual—but he was almost certaly a homosexual. They wonred: Why was the Archdce fendg a non-celibate homosexual wh a history of unpritly behavr, and stg asi a vout, heroic prit who'd sgle-handly rcued one of s parish? One of several pag of (NSFW) prtouts om the gay hook-up se, which Moral' alleged boyiend Carlos Insignar equented, found the garbage by Christifilis vtigators outsi the home Insignar and Moral owned a pre-trial vtigatn, for example, emerged that Anibal Moral and his alleged boyiend, Carlos Insignar, bought a hoe together on SW 13th Street, Miami, where they habated on Moral's days off; that Moral had granted Insignar power of attorney; that Insignar ma extensive e of a gay hookup se lled Bear411; and that Insignar was (and prumably still is) uncircumsized.
To the pot, has e to their attentn that there exists among the clergy of the Archdce a 'gay' superculture which fosters active homosexual activy, the misspendg and misdirectg of parish funds, and the persecutn of those (clergy and lay) who qutn this type of follows are hundreds of pag of documentatn divid to ne chapters and four appendic, nsistg mostly of anonymo ttimony accg var dcan prits of wanton promiscuy and fancial miseds over the urse of Favalora's reign.
ADAPTED OM SECRET CITY: THE HIDN HISTORY OF GAY WASHGTON BY JAM KIRCHICK. PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY. COPYRIGHT © 2022 BY JAM KIRCHICK. ALL RIGHTS RERVED.
" Until 1998, this official owned a home wh a male lover northern homosexual prits, each wh his own Miami parish, -habated Miami homosexual prits, each wh his own parish, were lovers; one liked to go shoppg "wh the girls" on Lln Road for feme smetics; the other ed to date one of the Archdce's male IT personnel.
A homosexual prit pissed off parishners by g a banana to monstrate proper ndom age to young children, ntrary to the birth-ntrol method prcribed by the Church (abstence) recently, an associate pastor had received full pastorship at a church the Florida Keys after beg ught en flagrante lecto wh his male lover—while the person who ught him, a Philippo prit, was booted om the the are jt the prits about whom somethg unual has been said. Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton by Jam Kirchick provis an -pth and exhstively rearched acunt of the unrground world of primarily whe gay men through printial admistratns om Frankl Roosevelt's to Bill Clton's. ""Then there was the gay sndal 1967, when Reagan was ernor of California, that volved an alleged gay y of Reagan at a hoe on Lake Tahoe, which is where all the gay mors began about former Congrsman Jack Kemp, who ran as the Republin vice-printial ndidate 1996 wh Sen.
"Of all the gay men Secret Cy, Sumner Well -- who beme Frankl Roosevelt's unrsecretary of State 1937 after servg var diplomatic rol -- was likely the most fluential, says Kirchick. It was 3:15 on the morng of June 26, 1980, and Congrsman Bob Livgston was extraordarily dnk, hidg the ngrsnal gym beneath the Rayburn Hoe Office Buildg, petrified that a team of highly traed right-wg homosexual assasss workg on behalf of Ronald Reagan was about to kill him.
THE GAY CHURCH
While public attus have bee far more open, the suatn that someone is gay — whether te or not — remas a potent weapon (as elements of the mpaign agast North Carola Republin Rep. This acunt of the alleged “homosexual rg” that ntrolled Ronald Reagan, and the efforts to expose on the eve of the 1980 Republin Natnal Conventn that nomated him for the princy, is piled om terviews wh several of the survivg participants and documents unvered the papers of former Washgton Post Executive Edor Ben Bradlee.
“That stuff, ” or what Kemp adviser Ju Wanniski termed “the homosexual thg, ” had dogged the upstate New York ngrsman and former profsnal football player sce the fall of 1967, when the syndited newspaper lumnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anrson published a piece lkg Kemp to a “homosexual rg” operatg wh Reagan’s gubernatorial office. ” The “slanr” and “old lumny” that the virile ex-football pro and father of four might be gay, journalists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak wrote at the time, was a “vic nard, ” the sort of “poisono” “garbage” one found “submerged the polil sewers” and other “gutter munitns” that “not only do gross jtice to their victims but also mean and pollute mocratic ernment. Behd those closed doors, McCloskey suggted strongly that the possibily of Kemp as a nng mate was proof that the “homosexual rg” around Reagan, long dismissed as mor, might be somethg all too real.