Was J. Edgar Hoover Gay?

[VaticanAssassin]

Caught the last 20 minutes of the Leonardo movie on him the other day. I was surprised they portrayed him the way they did. I always thought it was just a rumor.

Doing the bare minimum research via goggle shows just as much evidence that he was straight as he was gay. The people who claimed him gay had reasons to make false accusations, and the people who claim he was straight also have reasons to lie. None of it seems like a slam dunk to me. The evidence itself all seems circumstantial.

So am I missing something?

Seems like it all just come down to a matter of opinion.

whats yours?

I would love to look at his missing files.....

 

[Adre]

Well, his house seemed very clean.

 

[blobfish]

Absolutely. He had a romantic relationship with his assistant. He might not have been all the way gay, but he definitely wasn't all the way straight either. I think the crossdressing is a rumor, though.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

All evidence other than confessions and eye-witness testimony is circumstantial.

 

[Sean]

All evidence other than confessions and eye-witness testimony is circumstantial.

Get three eye witnesses to the same incident and they'll give three different stories.

 

[VaticanAssassin]

Absolutely. He had a romantic relationship with his assistant. He might not have been all the way gay, but he definitely wasn't all the way straight either. I think the crossdressing is a rumor, though.

Since the 1940s, rumors have circulated that Hoover was gay.[41] The historians John Stuart Cox and Athan G. Theoharis speculated that Clyde Tolson, who became an associate director of the FBI and Hoover's primary heir, may have been his lover.[42]

Hoover hunted down and threatened anyone who made insinuations about his sexuality.[43] He also spread unsubstantiated rumors that Adlai Stevenson was gay to damage the liberal governor's 1952 presidential campaign.[43] His extensive secret files contained surveillance material on Eleanor Roosevelt's alleged lesbian lovers, speculated to be acquired for the purpose of blackmail, as well as material on presidents' liaisons, including those of John F. Kennedy.[43]

Other academic scholars have dismissed the rumors about Hoover's sexuality, and his relationship with Tolson in particular, as unlikely.[44][45][46] while others have described them as probable or even "confirmed",[47][48][page needed] Other scholars have reported the rumors without expressing an opinion.[49][50]

Hoover described Tolson as his alter ego: the men worked closely together during the day and, both single, frequently took meals, went to night clubs and vacationed together.[42] This closeness between the two men is often cited as evidence that they were lovers, though some FBI employees who knew them, such as W. Mark Felt, say that the relationship was "brotherly." The former FBI official Mike Mason suggested that some of Hoover's colleagues denied that he had a sexual relationship with Tolson in an effort to protect his image.[51]

Hoover bequeathed his estate to Tolson, who moved into the house. He accepted the American flag that draped Hoover's casket. Tolson is buried a few yards away from Hoover in the Congressional Cemetery.

Hoover's biographer Richard Hack does not believe that the director was gay. Hack notes that Hoover was romantically linked to actress Dorothy Lamour in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and that after Hoover's death, Lamour did not deny rumors that she had had an affair with Hoover in the years between her two marriages.[52] Hack reported that, during the 1940s and 1950s, Hoover so often attended social events with Lela Rogers, the divorced mother of dancer and actress Ginger Rogers, that many of their mutual friends assumed the pair would eventually marry.[52]

In his 1993 biography Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, the journalist Anthony Summers quoted "society divorcee" Susan Rosenstiel as claiming to have seen Hoover engaging in cross-dressing in the 1950s at homosexual parties.[48][page needed][53][54] Summers also said that the Mafia had blackmail material on Hoover, which made Hoover reluctant to aggressively pursue organized crime. Although never corroborated, the allegation of cross-dressing has been widely repeated. In the words of author Thomas Doherty, "For American popular culture, the image of the zaftig FBI director as a Christine Jorgensen wanna-be was too delicious not to savor."[55]

Skeptics of the cross-dressing story point to Susan Rosenstiel's poor credibility (she plead guilty for attempted perjury in a 1971 case and later served time in a New York City jail).[56][57] Recklessly indiscreet behavior by Hoover would have been totally out of character, whatever his sexuality. Most biographers consider the story of Mafia blackmail to be unlikely in light of the FBI's investigations of the Mafia.[58][59] Truman Capote, who helped spread salacious rumors about Hoover, once remarked that he was more interested in making Hoover angry than determining whether the rumors were true.[32]

The attorney Roy Cohn, an associate of Hoover during the 1950s investigations of Communists and known to be a closeted homosexual, opined that Hoover was too frightened of his own sexuality to have anything approaching a normal sexual or romantic relationship.[32] In his 2004 study of the Lavender Scare, the historian David K. Johnson attacked the speculations about Hoover's homosexuality as relying on "the kind of tactics Hoover and the security program he oversaw perfected – guilt by association, rumor, and unverified gossip." He views Rosenstiel as a liar who was paid for her story, whose "description of Hoover in drag engaging in sex with young blond boys in leather while desecrating the Bible is clearly a homophobic fantasy." He believes only those who have forgotten the virulence of the decades-long campaign against homosexuals in government can believe reports that Hoover appear in compromising situations.[60]

Some people associated with Hoover have supported the assertion of his homosexual tendencies.[61] The singer Ethel Merman, who was a friend of Hoover's since 1938, said in a 1978 interview: "Some of my best friends are homosexual. Everybody knew about J. Edgar Hoover, but he was the best chief the FBI ever had."[62] An FBI agent who had gone on fishing trips with Hoover and Tolson said that the director liked to "sunbathe all day in the nude."[62] Hoover often frequented New York City's Stork Club. Luisa Stuart, a model who was 18 or 19 at the time, told Summers that she had seen Hoover holding hands with Tolson as they all rode in a limo uptown to the Cotton Club in 1936.[62]

The novelist William Styron told Summers that he once saw Hoover and Tolson in a California beach house, where the director was painting his friend's toenails.[62] Harry Hay, founder of the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights organizations, said that Hoover and Tolson sat in boxes owned by and used exclusively by gay men at the Del Mar racetrack in California.[62] One medical expert told Summers that Hoover was of "strongly predominant homosexual orientation", while another medical expert categorized him as a "bisexual with failed heterosexuality

 

[hobbit.]

Get three eye witnesses to the same incident and they'll give three different stories.

So hide the statements of the two you least like or who least fit the objective, oh and call all three as prosecution witnesses, but only take the one you want to court....

probably he was a bender since most yanks are.

 

[VaticanAssassin]

I would say there is a high degree of probable cause....but I doubt the evidence available would pass clear and convincing or beyond a reasonable doubt standards.

 

[trysail]

Rule #1

Never believe anything that Hollywood represents as historical fact.

 

[busybody..]

what difference does it make

 

[Liar]

For what it's worth, I have not witnessed, in person, on photo or on film, J Edgar Hoover suck dick.

 

[busybody..]

All

Hoovers

Suck

 

[warrior queen]

I'm wondering what difference his sexuality makes?

 

[VaticanAssassin]

I'm wondering what difference his sexuality makes?

None. He was a sleaze bag either way. A evil genius kind of sleaze bag. Just thought it weird Hollywood would run with something so questionable....

 

[blobfish]

Just thought it weird Hollywood would run with something so questionable....

Tee hee!

 

[MNGuy]

Not only has it been rumored Hoover was gay, but also passing for white, with some black blood in his lineage.

 

[Wrong Element]

It's hard to reconcile Hoover being "typically" heterosexual with the sort of relationship he had with Tolson. But whether he had actual sexual feelings for men, or for anybody for that matter, seems speculative based on the hard evidence. And yes, the pun is intended if you want it to be.

What Roy Cohn said about Hoover and sexuality probably gets close to the heart of the matter.

 

[TonyClifton]

Does anybody need a Cab?

 

[trysail]

Be advised that this is a public poll: other users can see the choice(s) you selected.

Poll Options
Was he a pole smocker?

I'm 100% certain J. Edgar Hoover wasn't a pole smocker.

 

[KingOrfeo]

All evidence other than confessions and eye-witness testimony is circumstantial.

Dude, Hoover's personal effects found after his death included a collection of photographs of Clyde Tolson sleeping. Circumstantial enough for ya?

 

[John Doe]

None. He was a sleaze bag either way. A evil genius kind of sleaze bag. Just thought it weird Hollywood would run with something so questionable....

Because their track record with historical accuracy was so good until now?

 

[doubleover]

None. He was a sleaze bag either way. A evil genius kind of sleaze bag. Just thought it weird Hollywood would run with something so questionable....

Hollywood would does not care about facts as long as there is money to be made. Kinda like the Obama campaign commercials.

 

[John Doe]

All evidence other than confessions and eye-witness testimony is circumstantial.

No, actually, physical evidence is not circumstantial. Confessions and eyewitness testimony on the other hand are notoriously unreliable.

 

[renard_ruse]

Caught the last 20 minutes of the Leonardo movie on him the other day. I was surprised they portrayed him the way they did. I always thought it was just a rumor.

Doing the bare minimum research via goggle shows just as much evidence that he was straight as he was gay. The people who claimed him gay had reasons to make false accusations, and the people who claim he was straight also have reasons to lie. None of it seems like a slam dunk to me. The evidence itself all seems circumstantial...

Part of The Gay Agenda is to focus on homosexual lifestyles of historical figures and "out" those who were suspected of practicing homosexuality in the past. This is part of the "gay history" movement and in my state they actually passed a law saying teachers are required to specifically emphasize to students if a historical figure is suspected of having been involved in homosexuality. Among the many obvious problems with this agenda, however, one is the fact that historical definitions of what we would call "gay" today are often very different than in our times and individual definitions of that even today vary. In fact, the idea of a "gay community" in the modern sense is largely a new concept. Individuals in the past may have dabbled in homosexuality but that doesn't mean that they were "gay" in the modern political sense.

LGBT Agendabots would argue for the most expansive definition of "gay" for obvious political / ideological reasons but this doesn't mean that historical figures who might have dabbled in homosexuality would have considered themselves homosexual much less "gay" or even "bisexual" in the modern ideological meaning of those terms. In fact, one could even argue that there was no "gay" until recent times in many cultures. Look at some Middle Eastern countries today or our own prisons where people engaging in homosexuality don't even think of it as homosexuality much less as "gay" in the ideological sense.