(What does a closeted gay politician do when he’s representing a right-wing ‘family values’ party? I saw this on SBS TV, and would recommend it, when it’s released into cinemas. Rowland).

Interviewed: Outrage Director Kirby Dick

Posted by: Adam Black on Tuesday 2nd November, 2010

Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick was in Washington DC working on a film titled This Film Is Not Yet Rated (expos ƒ © about the American movie ratings board) when he heard the scandalous rumour that Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff to then-US president George W Bush, and all round ultra-conservative, was gay.

“Whoa, I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve never heard that before,” thought Dick. Intrigued, he began to investigate other conservative members of government leading secret double lives.

Although Dick was never able to verify the truth to the Karl Rove rumour, it did lead him to discover many other politicians leading closeted gay lives. More astounding was the fact that many of these individuals were involved in legislation that actively damaged the gay community  ¢â‚¬“ voting against gay marriage, gay adoption, gays in the military, funding for AIDS research etc. Appalled by this gross hypocrisy, Dick stopped work on his film and started a new one called Outrage.

What Dick uncovered in the making of Outrage was a wide-ranging conspiracy to keep these senators’ homosexuality a secret, so as not to interfere with their tightly controlled  ¢â‚¬Ëœfamily values ¢â‚¬â„¢ based public image.

“There are lots of people working together,” says Dick. “They’re obviously not all sitting down together in a room, but many people in the press are aware of it. Staff are aware of it. Many people who are orchestrating anti-gay campaigns are aware that people who are very powerful politicians are, themselves, gay.

“This is all something that ¢â‚¬â„¢s very well-known within Washington, but something that no one ever comes forward about because it serves everybody ¢â‚¬â„¢s interest.

“In 2000 and 2004 it was, to some degree, one of the methods the Republicans used to obtain and maintain power. The press never questioned it because they knew if they were to ask these questions of hypocrisy they would never gain access to these politicians again. Since the press livelihood is dependant on this type of access, [journalists are] unwilling to ask those tough questions.”

The mass media ¢â‚¬â„¢s role in perpetuating and maintaining this veneer of straightness is well-documented in Outrage. Dick says part of the problem was that the lack of investigation and coverage in the media wasn ¢â‚¬â„¢t just restricted to right-wing media, but all media.

“This is something that ¢â‚¬â„¢s been an issue for 20 years,” Dick tells Jive. “As far as I know, no major media outlet would report on and name the names of these people who were engaging in this hypocrisy, which is kind of astounding.

“If you had a woman who ran on an anti-abortion platform and won, then got into office and got an abortion… If the press got that information they ¢â‚¬â„¢d report on it immediately.

“But here, they don ¢â‚¬â„¢t report on it. The unspoken message is, ‘We don ¢â‚¬â„¢t want to report on that because we don ¢â‚¬â„¢t want to damage them.’ There ¢â‚¬â„¢s something wrong to say that these people are gay, so there ¢â‚¬â„¢s actually a subtle homophobia at play.”

One of Dick’s reason for making Outrage was to examine the media’s complicity in keeping these secrets.

“I kind of strategically knew that the entertainment side of the press, film reviewers etc, would name names,” he says. “So, for the first time you had this hypocrisy  ¢â‚¬“ and the people themselves who are the hypocrites  ¢â‚¬“ being named in the New York Times and the LA Times and other major media outlets.

“But there were other major outlets, NPR [National Public Radio] and the like, who still wouldn ¢â‚¬â„¢t do it. There’s still that old-school attitude that there’s something wrong with being gay.”

Gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk once said that the more gay professionals who come out, the easier it is for gay rights to advance. Once the lie is removed, there ¢â‚¬â„¢s no need to hide. Dick thinks there may be other areas of American society, beyond the areas explored in Outrage, where homosexuality remains intentionally closeted.

“In sports, certainly, it ¢â‚¬â„¢s a big issue,” he says. “You could make a whole film on that.”

“And in film and television, you have actors who are making millions and millions of dollars by pretending to be straight because if they came out they may, or may not, be able to get the same roles which are as lucrative.

“It ¢â‚¬â„¢s not at the same level as someone who actually makes laws that damage the lives of millions of American gay and lesbian citizens, but there is definitely some level of hypocrisy there.”

There’s no doubt gay rights have advanced to some extent in recent years. In Australia, being gay is no longer a major political liability, as can be seen in the success of openly gay politicians such as Bob Brown and Penny Wong.

Dick says that in the US, although it varies from district to district, being gay is still often considered a political liability. And although Outrage chronicles some of the advances in gay rights in recent history, he doesn ¢â‚¬â„¢t see the film as a statement of victory at all.

“I still think there ¢â‚¬â„¢s so much work to be done,” he says. “Things are by no means decided.

“Generally, the younger people are the more accepting they are of gays and lesbians. The more gays and lesbians they know, the less they think it ¢â‚¬â„¢s an issue. But there are some very powerful churches, in the US and globally, that still think homosexuality is an issue.

“What happens in politics is that things are very cyclical, so typically reactionary forces will vilify minorities. Gays and lesbians have been attacked throughout several centuries at least. So I think it ¢â‚¬â„¢s going to be an ongoing battle for many many years.”

‘Outrage’ screened Tuesday 2 November at 10pm on SBS ONE.

http://jivetv.com.au/sydney/news-and-features/features/interviewed-outrage-director-kirby-dick

Movie Trailer here