FBI Agents Upset Over a Gay J. Edgar

We all knew that the new biopic "J. Edgar," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was going to be tantamount to peeing in the Cheerios of many at the FBI and elsewhere. Heavens forbid that their icon might have been gay. It's part and parcel with the far too prevalent mindset that one cannot possibly have done something positive such as building the FBI and fostering innovations like crime labs if one is gay. The truth, of course, is that the public stereotype of gays is 100% wrong most of the time even if our Christianist enemies work tirelessly to maintain a derogatory image of gays and other segments of the LGBT community. That's why LGBT individuals' decision to come out and live openly as who they are is such a powerful tool - it shows the lie of the stereotype. The Washington Post looks at the whining of Hoover's admirers within the FBI and out. Not surprisingly, it predominantly older former FBI agents who are most upset. A group that likely supported DADT and believes the lies of Maggie Gallagher. Note the mindset that being gay is about the worse thing one can allege abut a person. Here are some highlights:

“Mr. Hoover was portrayed as an individual who had homosexual tendencies and was a tyrannical monster,” Schwarz said into the camera, as the sun glinted off his FBI cuff links and FBI lapel pin. “That is simply not true.”

Many former FBI agents share Schwartz’s pique with the film’s dropped hints of an abiding love between Hoover and aide Clyde Tolson, who is buried a few grave sites away.

Since “J. Edgar’s” release early this month, hundreds of agents have griped about the film on xgboys, a closed e-mail list for FBI retirees that takes its name from one of Hoover’s pet dogs, which in turn is a play on the old nickname for federal agents, “G-men.”

“I don’t know anyone who’s not extremely upset,” said Bill Branon, a former agent . . . . If it were true, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. But don’t do that to the poor guy when he’s dead and gone.”

Agents younger than 70 or so don’t get it, said Brad Benson, president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. “Devotion is probably a good word for my generation and up,” said Benson, 70. “The more recent people can’t understand why all the energy is being devoted to this when our [retirement] benefits are at stake.”

As a technical adviser on the film, former agent Scott Nelson said he also advised the filmmakers it was “gratuitous” to include a scene showing Hoover and Tolson kissing . . . . But Nelson thinks some of his fellow former agents are overreacting.

“It’s a biopic. It’s not a biography,” said Nelson, who now runs his own security firm in California. “That doesn’t mean it’s factual. Agents deal in fact, and they’re offended at the literary license taken by the screenwriter. I know why they’re offended.”

However, Nelson said, the film does not disparage Hoover, and the speculative focus on his personal life was part of dramatic storytelling: “That’s Hollywood.”

In a day and age where the closet doors were nailed tightly shut by closeted gays, I'm sure Hoover - if he was indeed gay - was no exception to that rule. And there's no one more outwardly homophobic than closeted gays. Just look at the GOP's parade of closet cases that have been exposed. I just look forward to the day when being gay isn't deemed something horrible by anyone.