Quelle surprise…
… that closeted, self-loathing cross-dresser J. Edgar Hoover would be so disturbed by his own unresolved issues that he’d expend enormous energy & FBI resources witch-hunting political figures like LBJ aide Jack Valenti! Apparently, an unconfirmed report of the married Valenti swimming nude at the White House spurred months of official investigation into whether he was also having a secret affair with a gay photographer. (How does that logic go? Let’s see … we have pictures of you petting your dog, so maybe that means you run a dog-fighting racket. Or have sex with cats. Or smuggle Chinese octopi into the country. I mean, ya never know.)
What *is* a bit surprising, and disappointing, is that progressive lion Bill Moyers was also caught up in this kind of witch-hunting. Apparently the sick gay-baiting culture that was predominant at the time proved too much for even a Moyers to resist. He is documented assisting Hoover’s investigations. As for LBJ, he went out of his way to assert that his pal Valenti was “all right,” meaning he only liked to schtup the ladies. He also lamented that one of his former aides who WASN’T “all right” could’ve cost him the ‘64 election if they hadn’t quietly and immediately canned him. And LBJ expressed disappointment in Valenti’s “faulty judgment” about that aide. No problem with him being cozy with crime bosses, but why’d he let in that queer?
As for the gay photog, well, there was no choice but to submit him to a brutal, humiliating interrogation, in which he fell all over himself assuring them that Valenti wasn’t a sex pervert like himself. Apparently the questioning left him in emotional ruin for years. But hey, y’know, collateral damage. Faggot brought it on himself, anyway. Should be glad he’s not in a paddy wagon.
Amazing to view attitudes of the recent past under the harsh light of day. And that was from a wild-eyed liberal administration!
What *is* a bit surprising, and disappointing, is that progressive lion Bill Moyers was also caught up in this kind of witch-hunting. Apparently the sick gay-baiting culture that was predominant at the time proved too much for even a Moyers to resist. He is documented assisting Hoover’s investigations. As for LBJ, he went out of his way to assert that his pal Valenti was “all right,” meaning he only liked to schtup the ladies. He also lamented that one of his former aides who WASN’T “all right” could’ve cost him the ‘64 election if they hadn’t quietly and immediately canned him. And LBJ expressed disappointment in Valenti’s “faulty judgment” about that aide. No problem with him being cozy with crime bosses, but why’d he let in that queer?
As for the gay photog, well, there was no choice but to submit him to a brutal, humiliating interrogation, in which he fell all over himself assuring them that Valenti wasn’t a sex pervert like himself. Apparently the questioning left him in emotional ruin for years. But hey, y’know, collateral damage. Faggot brought it on himself, anyway. Should be glad he’s not in a paddy wagon.
Amazing to view attitudes of the recent past under the harsh light of day. And that was from a wild-eyed liberal administration!