He da ho. In the toilet with Senator Larry Craig. Dick’s doc discloses closeted homophobes who benefit by bashing gays
By Ed Rampell
The bold new documentary Outrage is the most explosive film about gay issues since 2008’s Oscar-winning Milk. Outrage exposes the masquerade of politicians and other notables who have anti-gay public records and private homosexual lifestyles. Writer-director Kirby Dick is more like Dick Tracy, as he deftly deploys the cinematic sleuthing skills he used to reveal the MPAA’s secretive censors in 2006’s This Film is Not Yet Rated to unveil closeted politicos with homophobic public stances.
Dick takes on Pasadena’s Congressman David Dreier (Outrage claims Dreier lost out on a high ranking congressional chairmanship because Christian conservatives suspect he’s homosexual), Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Rep. Jim McCrery, former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman, former New York Mayor Ed Koch, various Reagan administration staffers, FOX News’ Shepard Smith, the late mogul Malcolm Forbes and the particularly despicable McCarthyite witch-hunter Roy Cohen, etc.
Like a good investigative journalist Dick reports on the policy makers’ votes against gay rights, such as same sex marriage, then rips the alleged facades off of their purported private lives. Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, is singled out for betraying the gay rights cause, while seeking to market beer and GOP politics to homosexuals, instead of trying to counter Republicans’ homophobic jihads. Dick also skewers the corporate media, including gossip columnists, for their complicity in what the doc calls “a brilliantly orchestrated conspiracy” concealing the secret identities of closeted homophobes in politics, as well as of supposedly straight celebrities in the world of entertainment, such as, allegedly, Calvin Klein. But while these celebs may lead double lives, Dick reserves most of his fire for clandestinely gay inhabitants of the corridors of power who benefit from using their heft to harm homosexuals by pursuing anti-gay agendas, which they also use as a mask to hide behind.
As Hustler’s former Features Editor, Larry Flynt assigned me to expose Idaho Sen. Larry Craig before the infamous Minneapolis airport bathroom bust (the police-recorded toilet tapes open Outrage). But Dick bravely goes far beyond Flynt’s largely unsuccessful attempt to expose the private lives of hypocritical “family values” right-wingers. Those being outted may consider Kirby to be – well – a dick, and it remains to be seen whether the lawsuits will be flying fast and furious after Outrage opens on May 8.
Dick’s interview subjects include: blogger Andrew Sullivan, Rep. Barney Frank, former Human Rights Campaign Director Elizabeth Birch, the first openly gay U.S. Ambassador Jim Hormel, ACT UP’s Larry Kramer, Angels In America playwright Tony Kushner, journalists Wayne Barrett, Michelangelo Signorile, Hilary Rosen, plus archival footage of Harvey Milk, etc. Former GOP Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe and New Jersey’s ex-Governor Jim McGreevey talk about the liberating relief of coming out of the closet.
Among the documentary’s incisive points are how living a self-denying lie skews one’s world view and that according to one of the doc’s sources, Washington is, allegedly, “the gayest city in America” and couldn’t function without its numerous gay staffers – many of them Republicans. Outrage reserves a special seat in cinematic hell for what activist-blogger Mike Rogers calls “traitors” – homosexual politicos who profiteer from and literally cover their asses with gay bashing.
This is one of the most powerful, trenchant documentaries since the Tidal Wave of Dissident Docs began after 9/11, as Kirby Dick takes his rightful place in the contemporary nonfiction motion picture pantheon, alongside of Michael Moore, Robert Greenwald, Alex Gibney, Errol Morris and Morgan Spurlock. No matter what your sexual orientation is, if you value honesty, social justice and hard-hitting filmmaking, don’t miss the outrageous Outrage!
