The opening few moments of OUTRAGE, Kirby Dick's brand new take on closeted gay U.S. politicos, do not come with subtlety. After listening to the voice of Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) attempt to explain away his foot gymnastics in a Minnesota airport bathroom stall, sensational title cards are thrown at viewers featuring words like "conspiracy" and "tyranny". Later, a Reagan administration official will be accused of "collusion with genocide". The premise laid bare: keeping high-level political figures safe in the sexual closet requires a vast support structure of "don't tell-ers" that results in government policies or political campaigns aimed at keeping the gay man (and lesbian woman) down - and worse.
That's a lot to promise in the first five minutes of a film that already is carrying a substantial load on its shoulders. Anne Schroeder Mullins at Politico says that the film is "promising to be a possible 'game-changer' for the civil rights of same sex couples". ("Promise to be a possible"?) And for weeks, there's been speculation about which high profile pols would be outed by Kirby Dick in the film. (Marl Move anyone?)
So, getting that out of the way, yes, names are named. However, if you've been reading political blogs like we have for the year or two leading up to the November elections, you may not be surprised to hear Florida Governor Charlie Crist's name bandied about, nor Congressman David Dreier of California. Certainly not Larry Craig. Perhaps the most surprising outing (for us at least) was not a politician but a newscaster - Fox News' Shepard Smith.
If the revelations are not particularly startling, the cumulative effect of their stories is very effective. Kirby Dick successfully makes a prosecutor's case, starting with his loaded and provocative opening statement and then laying out his evidence - sometimes quietly, sometimes forcefully. He details each politician's voting record on hate crimes legislation, gay marriage, AIDS funding (usually a series of repeating "no"s popping graphically onto the screen) as he begins to probe their personal lives. And, most significantly, he moves the story from blog whispers and innuendo, to the big screen and its attendent publicity tour. Dick alleges that the media has been complicit in perpetuating this tyrannical silence - clearly the hope is that reviews and press of his film will expose the subject to some mainstream sunlight. Will CNN's Larry King Live - shown in the film to have edited out Bill Maher's outing of RNC head Ken Mehlman - invite Kirby Dick on as a guest?
Whether "outing" itself is appropriate is given a brief walk-through, traced primarily to journalist/activist Michelangelo Signorile's exposing of closeted celebs in the late '80s. Today the focus, no surprise, is on a blogger - Michael Rogers. While a handful of interviewees, including Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan, decry outing, the general consensus is that outing is appropriate, at least for those who govern one way and fuck another. As one interviewee says, "Everyone loves a good outing."
Getting the worst of it is Governor Crist and Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch. The film names former longtime lovers of both men, alleging that Koch's companion - a young man named Richard Nathan - and two of Crist's partners, were made to disappear at key electoral moments. Koch - a former Democratic congressman before he became Mayor - is portrayed as a particularly monstrous figure, threatening his ex with physical harm should Nathan ever reveal their relationship.
Rumors about Gov. Crist - his sexual preference, speculation over whether new girlfriends are actually beards - have become so rampant in Florida that the film can give Crist numerous opportunities to nervously declare his heterosexuality via a variety of TV and radio interviews. Smartly, Kirby Dick has former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey (who announced he was a "gay American" and resigned during a memorable live television broadcast) on hand to tell us just what Crist might be going on through.
Where Dick's film truly succeeds is in laying consequences at both men's feet. For Koch, it was silence during the exploding AIDS crisis. Activist Larry Kramer notes that the Mayor of San Francisco found funding for the health crisis even as Koch remained inactive.
Crist, who has shown himself to be a moderate, or even liberal-leaning, Republican on a variety of issues - as well as a craven opportunist - is shown backing both a gay marriage amendment as well as that state's unique law prohibiting adoption by gay parents.
Set against both men's stories, Dick, working with his editor Doug Blush, unleashes a succession of news reports detailing hate crimes against gays and lesbians, ending with a 14-year old shooting a 15-year old at Oxnard High School in California.
It's here that the film makes its powerful, and frankly compelling, closing argument - as Kirby Dick draws a line from the DC political closet to the death in Oxnard. Even as news reports circulate that top Republicans are beginning to rethink their gay=bad strategy (at least for the long term) and may be realizing that gay marriage is ultimately a losing issue for them, OUTRAGE asks when, when will the closeted in DC stop beating on "fags" to show their own "strength".
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