Out & Outing

The return of outing

New documentary ‘Outrage’ promises to lift the veil on D.C.’s closet culture
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 | By: Kevin Naff



NEW DOCUMENTARY ON outing from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Kirby Dick premieres tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and promises to reignite debate about the practice of exposing the sexual orientation of closeted public figures. It’s far and away the most controversial and popular topic the Blade has covered in my six years here. From Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith to Mark Foley and Larry Craig to Queen Latifah and Lance Bass, we’ve reported on a wide array of closeted politicians and celebrities.

“Outrage,” the new documentary, focuses on closeted politicians and the mainstream media outlets that so often protect their dirty little secrets. Kirby Dick and his crew spent time in D.C. last year interviewing politicians, activists and media types (the Blade’s Lou Chibbaro and me included) about the practice of outing, a dated term that I no longer use.

The film also features interviews with former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, radio host Michelangelo Signorile, blogger Mike Rogers, gay Rep. Barney Frank and others.

The documentary’s resourceful team of researchers and filmmakers reportedly investigated the gay rumors surrounding some of the Republican Party’s most prominent leaders. Rumors about one such official, Condoleezza Rice, were probed last year after two reliable sources agreed to speak to the Blade about their social interactions with the former Secretary of State. In the end, they got cold feet and our resulting story was less smoking gun and more speculation. That experience, which unfolded over the course of several months, revealed just how heated this topic remains and the trepidation many still feel when discussing the basic fact of someone’s sexual orientation. I’ve long argued that the fact of being gay (or straight) is not private and that the true tipping point in the fight for equal rights under the law will come when we get over our squeamishness and come out to everyone in our lives.

The timing of the film’s release will disappoint some who had hoped for an October surprise — a splashy premiere and a good ole’ fashioned outing of a prominent Republican politician just weeks before the election. But it turns out Barack Obama didn’t need yet another gay GOP hypocrisy scandal to get elected and now “Outrage” serves as a timely reminder that gay Americans have not reached the finish line in our fight, despite the news out of Vermont and Iowa this month.

MAKE NO MISTAKE THAT THE SELF imposed closet — not Christian rightwingers or George W. Bush or Pope Benedict — remains the biggest obstacle to equality. Films like this one help to illuminate that fact and, I hope, will inspire more closeted people to come out. Living a lie destroys lives, from loved ones feeling betrayed about the deception to the hoodwinked spouses and children caught in the middle.

Before we declare victory, pop the Champagne corks and celebrate the end of the culture wars, it’s sobering to remember that 29 states have banned same-sex marriage via constitutional amendment and that firing an employee for being gay remains legal in a majority of states. In just the last two weeks, two grade schoolage boys committed suicide after anti-gay bullying at school. Meanwhile, the window of opportunity for passing gay rights legislation is narrowing; we’ve learned not to expect anything in election years and 2010 is just eight months away.

Although a federal hate crimes bill appears poised to pass, the future for the much more important Employment Non- Discrimination Act is less certain. And a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act? Don’t expect serious talk of either until 2011.

James Kirchick, an assistant editor for the New Republic and a former Blade contributor, overlooked those facts and got ahead of himself in a Washington Post op-ed piece this month, suggesting that gay rights groups should be closing up shop in the very near future. He argues that because younger Americans (like himself, he’s 25) are polling better on gay issues than their elders (like me, I’m 38), that “victories are not far off, and gay rights organizations should start facing the prospect that in the near future, their missions will be superfluous.”

Kirchick writes, “For people who grew up in a time when being open about one’s homosexuality could result in being fired or thrown into prison, it’s harder to move out of a mindset that sees the plight of gay people as one of perpetual struggle. This attitude is all the more pronounced in those who hold leadership positions in the gay rights movement, as their life’s work depends upon the notion that we are always and everywhere oppressed.”

ALTHOUGH 2003’S LAWRENCE V. TEXAS ruling ended the prospect of jail time for sexually active gays, anti-gay discrimination in the workplace remains a very real problem for those living outside liberal urban enclaves on the coasts (unlike Kirchick). As someone who has experienced such discrimination first hand, I can assure skeptics that it’s not an isolated problem trumped up by aging gay activists longing to be victimized. I hope Kirchick is right about impending victories — and I would happily resign as Blade editor if the nation’s discriminatory laws were changed to afford gays equality. But, unlike in Canada or the United Kingdom, it’s premature to call for closing activist organizations (or the gay press outlets that keep them honest) here.

In fact, activists should be busier than ever now. The need for visibility has never been more important as we open this new chapter in American history that holds so much promise.We should all resist complacency.

Equal rights haven’t magically arrived simply because the Democrats are in charge — we know how disappointing the party’s track record has been on our issues. Just as Congress begins considering long-suffering LGBT legislation, “Outrage” arrives, reminding us that hypocrisy thrives in Washington’s political circles, where too many lawmakers, their Hill staff and members of the compliant mainstream media remain in the closet.

Projects like “Outrage” that challenge viewers’ notions of sexual orientation as a private fact or something to be kept secret can only help. Here’s hoping it reaches a wider audience than the gay activist choir.