In such documentaries as Sick (1997), his affectionate, unnervingly funny requiem for "super masochist" Bob Flanagan, and This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006), a muckraking examination of the MPAA rating system, director Kirby Dick staked out his territory at the point where sexually transgressive artists go head to head with the forces of repression. Consequently, the movies were at least implicitly political. There's nothing implicit about Dick's latest, Outrage, a look at the self-immolating subculture of closeted gay politicians who, as part of their cover, vote against gay rights and sign on with the hateful agenda of the religious right.
Outrage includes choice news footage of the besieged, perpetually seething Larry Craig, he of the wide stance. There's also a primer on the ambitious Florida governor Charlie Crist, whose timely marriage last year (and support for Florida Amendment 2, the anti-gay-marriage rule that was added to the state's constitution last election season) Dick attributes to the governor's desire to quash rumors about his personal life. The movie also devotes a lot of time to blogger Michael Rogers and writer and talk-radio host Michelangelo Signorile, who see it as their duty to expose the hypocrites hiding in the "family values" playpen.
Although Outrage makes room for those (such as Andrew Sullivan) who are troubled by the ethics of outing, Dick's heart is clearly with the outers. (He is, after all, the guy who, for his previous film, hired a private eye to help him get the names of "secret" members of the MPAA's ratings board.) This aspect of Outrage is sure to make it controversial. But the most remarkable thing about the movie may be its testimony from those who freed themselves from the closet, including Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey, and former Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe, who made the announcement in order to get ahead of others who were about to do it for him. There may be no more touching scene in theaters right now than that of Jim Kolbe talking about coming out and feeling years of fear and deception melting away. When Kolbe began making the rounds to tell his colleagues, including John McCain, what they already knew, he wasn't prepared for the wave of acceptance that greeted him; something he'd always dreaded as a march up Calvary turned out to be more like a victory lap. There's a lot of anger in Outrage, but there's also an outstretched hand being offered to those who might risk enjoying the freedom and release that comes with living an honest life.
We spoke with Kirby Dick last week, between the movie's successful premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and its theatrical release on May 8.
How did you come to this story?
I was in Washington, D.C. in August 2006 promoting my last film, This Film Is Not Yet Rated. That was a story I knew about, really, because I was inside the film business. And I thought, here I am in Washington, D.C.; there must be many stories that these people inside politics would know that I wouldn't know. I started asking around and quickly came upon the fact that there are a great many closeted gay politicians, and a great many of them vote anti-gay. But what I found out is that this is a story that the mainstream media has not reported on. I realized that was an important subject on its own.
Why do you think the media shies away from it?
I think they're reluctant to write about gay sexuality. Barney Frank says that they'll write all kinds of personal details about him but they won't say he's gay, as if there's something wrong with it. And of course, that message gets disseminated, and it stokes the homophobia. Also, a lot of these news outlets are owned by major corporations, which do a lot of business in Congress. They are very reluctant to do anything that they think might affect a vote that, in turn, might affect their bottom line.
It's interesting; the reporters themselves, the ones I've engaged with, are very supportive of this film and really want to write a story about it. But it's the people above them. . . I had somebody come up to me and say, "I really want to write about this, but I can't, because our company has a policy against outing." I said, "Do you mean to say that your company's policy on outing trumps your company's policy on reporting!?" And of course, he had nothing to say. This is what their job is. As political journalists, their job is to report on hypocrisy. In some ways, there's nothing more important for them to do than to report on public officials saying one thing and doing another.
Did you find, as you were asking around, that you met a lot of people who were grateful for the chance to finally talk about this?
Oh, yeah. Many of my interview subjects, both Democrat and Republican — most of them are gay. And they knew the cost of the closet. They've been in the closet themselves, they've known people who've been in the closet and suffered in the closet; they've been close to politicians who'd voted anti-gay to protect the closet. And they saw how those votes affected millions of Americans. They wanted the story told.
Were you really surprised by the extent of all this?
Yes, I was. When I started researching the film, it was before the Larry Craig affair, and I was aware that this sort of thing went on, but I thought it was just a few isolated incidents. I think that's one of the things my film reveals, that this isn't about one or two or three individuals. This is a systemic issue. The closet has existed in American politics for years. And it has contorted American politics for years!
I knew that there were guys like this in politics, maybe a lot of them, but I guess I always picture it as some purely pathological phenomenon, where some self-loathing person who was in denial about who he is gets elected to a position of power and spends half his life taking it out on the world. But in the movie, where you throw around words like "conspiracy," you make it sound as if you think it's a largely conscious process.
I think that everything that happens in politics is conscious. Politicians have to operate at a very high level of strategic thinking in order to succeed. Even Jim McGreevey said to me, "I took a poll to see where the electorate of New Jersey was on gay marriage" — this was around 2000 — "and they were anti-gay marriage, so I didn't want to be seen as somebody who's pro-gay marriage, in this environment, because then people start asking questions." These are the kind of decisions that are getting made.
The same thing is true of Charlie Crist. I strongly believe that he did not want to support Amendement 2. I mean, that's my personal opinion, I don't know that for a fact, but he's described himself as a live and let live kind of guy. Amendment 2 is anything but "live and let live." Here's a man who, if he were not in the closet, would, I believe, be voting pro-gay. And Amendment 2 will be the most significant legacy of his administration. It may take twenty or thirty years to overturn this legislation.
Do you see the development of the modern closet and the rise of the religious right as being intertwined?
Absolutely. Certainly the closet was in play even in the fifties and sixties, even though it was sort of different. In the film, Barney Frank says that in the seventies, the Democrats and the Republicans were about equal on gay rights. But since then, the Republican party has sort of linked up with the religious right and created this incredible anti-gay hysteria so they can gain power and remain in power. As a result, the gay politicians in the Republican party had to go deep into the closet, because otherwise their constituency and maybe primary challengers would start gay-bashing them. So they had to do everything to protect the closet. One of the things they did was to resolutely vote anti-gay, and then nobody would suspect them of being gay. That's one of the most damaging things about the closet.
In the movie, you've got Andrew Sullivan talking about how hard it can be to decide to come out, and how that decision maybe shouldn't be forced on anyone, because only these guys know what they're going through. You're pretty hard on the politicians in the closet, but do you have any sympathy for them as well?
I certainly empathize. It's a hellish life to live. All these closeted politicians are themselves victims of homophobia. They live in a society that, they feel, doesn't allow them to run as an "out" candidate. I imagine that everyone would choose to do that if there were no homophobia. And it's sad. It's almost Shakespearean: a man makes a choice to maintain a powerful political office, but, in exchange, has to live a double life.
The interviews you have with the politicians who have come out, like Frank and Jim Kolbe. . . I don't want to use the word "inspirational," but compared to somebody like Larry Craig, who always looks as if he's about to take a hostage, these guys don't look as if he and they belong to the same species. And it's very moving. Were you at all surprised by that?
Well, yeah, in a way I was. It kinda makes sense, but. . . I mean, here's someone like Jim Kolbe, who says that when he came out, it was almost a near-religious experience. Again, this goes to the pain they must be living under, having to live this double life, to always be afraid that they're going to be exposed. And now, he has a partner, he can live the life that he's always wanted to, and he can vote the way he always wanted to vote. Even though he supported the Defense of Marriage Act, which was an anti-gay-marriage act, in 1996, when the federal marriage amendment came up, he was one of the strong opponents of that. Now that he's out, he has no closet to protect.
Do you think the movie might do some good for those in the closet, in that it might encourage them to come out?
Well, I hope so. I think that particularly for people who are early in their careers, when they make the decision to either be out in politics or stay in the closet — I think that, up to now, the mainstream media have really stayed away from this issue, and those people making the decision have sort of made an evaluation that, well, if the mainstream media isn't covering it, maybe I can get away with it, and stay in the closet, and that's the path of least resistance. Now, because they see the film, I think they're going to realize that's probably not going to work. So they'll choose to do what, politically and personally, is the wise thing, which is to be out. And I hope that as a result of this film, you'll see many more out, gay candidates, both Democrat and Republican. n°
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