'Outrage' takes on closeted gay politicians
Edward Guthmann, Special to The Chronicle

May 10, 2009

"I'm a respectable person. I'm not gay. I don't do those kinds of things."

- Larry Craig, in a police interview after his June 2007 arrest at the
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on suspicion of lewd conduct

Kirby Dick hasn't shied from incendiary material in his long career as a
documentary filmmaker. He's portrayed a sex surrogate, a "supermasochist"
performance artist and a complex French philosopher.

He challenged the fuzzy, hypocritical morality of the Motion Picture
Association of America's ratings board in "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," and
in 2004 he was nominated for an Oscar for "Twist of Faith," a documentary
about a man confronting the pain of his childhood sexual abuse by a Catholic
priest.

In "Outrage," which opened this weekend in the Bay Area, Dick exposes the
covert lives of closeted gay politicians, many of whom vote against pro-gay
legislation to deflect suspicion of their own sexual preference. He looks at
former Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who denies that he is gay despite being
arrested on suspicion of lewd behavior in an airport bathroom and other
allegations about his sexual conduct reported in the Idaho Statesman; and
former U.S. Rep. Edward L. Schrock, R-Va., who retired in 2004 after he was
outed by the Advocate.

He interviews former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who came out and
resigned from office in 2004, and former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., who
came out in 1996, while still in office, and was re-elected five times.

"Outrage" doesn't pull its punches. "There exists a brilliantly orchestrated
conspiracy to keep gay and lesbian politicians as closeted as possible," it
states at the onset. "This film is about politicians who live in the closet,
those who have escaped it and the people who work to end its tyranny."

Dick, 56, lives in Los Angeles with his wife and has two children, ages 22
and 19. He spoke by phone from New York.

Q: This film is powerful. Were there a lot of people who didn't want it
made?

A: I'm sure there are a lot, but I wasn't in contact with them, and they
wouldn't be in contact with me. The closeted politicians, of course, stay as
far away from me as possible. There were actually a lot of people - within
Washington, within the political scene, whether Democrat or Republican - who
really wanted this story told. They had seen the damage of the closet for 20
years and more, and they really felt that the mainstream media hadn't
covered it.

Q: Are you expecting people to dismiss the allegations in the film as
hearsay? Is it possible that someone would try outing a politician to punish
him for a personal slight or ideological difference?

A: Well, I think that that may be the case at times. We spent nearly three
years making this film, and we had a team of researchers. We made very sure
that our cases were very strongly built. So, I'm 100 percent confident in
our position.

Q: You spotlight five or six closeted politicians: senators, congressmen and
a former New York City mayor. Are there lots of others you didn't include in
the film?

A: There are others, in Congress and in politics, that one can strongly
suspect are gay. But I didn't have the information to put them in the film.
And they may not be. The one thing I didn't want to do with this film was
deal in rumors.

Q: You have an impressive list of witnesses: Rep. Barney Frank of
Massachusetts and Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, both of whom are out; Jim
McGreevey and Jim Kolbe. Were there a lot of folks in Washington who refused
to speak?

A: Washington is a very careful town. And, of course, it has to be. There
were a number of people who didn't want to talk, and initially people were
concerned that this film might be tabloid. But I think, in the end, we got a
phenomenal range of people from both sides of the aisle. Jim McGreevey and
Jim Kolbe, who talked about the experience of being closeted from a very
personal perspective, really wanted to see this film made.

Q: What was the most surprising thing you came across during the making of
the film?

A: I was surprised, first of all, how gay Washington, D.C., is. With the
Bush administration and the Republicans controlling Congress, it was hard to
imagine that gays would be working in that environment. But, in fact, on
both sides of the aisle, it's extremely gay.

Q: Aside from certain elected officials, who are the gay people in
Washington?

A: It's people who work within the business. Certainly staffers on the hill,
administrative aides, the whole lobbying and support system and everything
like that. I repeatedly heard numbers of 30 to 40, even up to 50 percent
being gay or lesbian.

Q: What else surprised you?

A: I was surprised at how few people are aware of this issue. For audiences
who are outside the political spectrum, if you will, it is just such a
revelation. The gay press has been writing about this, and actually
demanding the mainstream media cover this, for years. So people are
surprised because mainstream media has stayed away from the subject. And by
staying away from it, they perpetuate the closet and the damage that the
closet causes. One of the objectives of my film is that, in 20 years, the
closet will no longer be a factor in American politics.

Q: But if you look at what's happened politically in the past 20 years, it's
been regressive in that regard, hasn't it?

A: Right. Barney Frank pointed that out in the film. There are some positive
signs certainly, but look at the passage of Proposition 8 in California and
Amendment 2 in Florida, which is even more onerous because it banned gay
civil unions as well as marriage. In interviewing people in Washington,
there was just a confidence that Proposition 8 was going to be defeated, and
I think it's a real wake-up call that this struggle hangs in the balance.
We're right in the midst of a gay rights struggle which, I believe, is the
most important human-rights issue in this country at this time.

Q: Why are you drawn so consistently to sexuality and gender politics as
subject matter?

A: I like to delve into subject matter that's complex. And I think when you
bring human sexuality into the mix, it just adds to the level of complexity.
When you're making a documentary, you're immersed in it for two years,
sometimes more. And I want subject matter that is continually challenging to
me. And certainly, you know, sexuality brings us there. {sbox}

Outrage (not rated) opened this weekend at Bay Area theaters.

To see a trailer for "Outrage," go to http://links.sfgate.com/ZGXS.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/10/PKTA17AR73.DTL

This article appeared on page R - 28 of the San Francisco Chronicle




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