Was J Edgar Hoover straight?

[dsc]

I know the history books say otherwise but it is a pretty well known fact that most transvestites are straight. He also never really was seen with men. He had plenty of straight friends and mentors and we all know how that works. Heck, even his parents were rumored to be straight. Add in the sterotypically straight behaviors like his love of guns, his macho attitude, and his unbridaled ambition and I am pretty sure he is. I sure am not implying it is wrong to be straight. God forbid I would do such a thing but inquiring minds would like to know.

[wuushew]

1. Irrelevant...his assault on civil liberteries is his true legacy

n/t

[Wapsie B]

2. I had heard

that he was gay. All I know for sure is that John Wayne was a cross-dresser.

[plaguepuppy]

20. John Wayne was a cross-dresser

Yeah, that was in Repo Man, it must be true!

[David Zephyr]

3. Homosexual.

He had a long time "civil union" with Clyde Tolson, DSC.

[dsc]

9. Clyde was a beard to hide the secret.

[bicentennial_baby]

4. Question

Since when is "unbridled ambition" a stereotypically straight behavior? Just curious... :shrug:

[Burma Jones]

5. Hey, c'mon, you guys get to claim at least one uber-evil SOB

or is Roy Cohn pretty much it?

J.Edgar Hoover had Clyde Tolson. I believe they're buried next to each other.

[Florida_Geek]

6. Gay or a Perry guy

:evilgrin:

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

7. I thought his partner was Clyde Tolson (sp?)

but I may just be repeated oft reported innuendo.

Re the transvesticism, I don't know how much I'd put into those claims. All a little weird & I'm sure the mafia softness had more to do with $$ than blackmail (& also US intelligence's use of guys like Luciano/Lansky/Roselli/Giancana, etc.

[dsc]

8. This is why I don't do sarcasm

I clearly am not too good at it. This was intended to be a send up of those "Is so and so gay threads?"

[Burma Jones]

10. I got it (n/t)

[KoKo]

11. Why do you care? His whole life is covered in secrecy. BUT..word

was that he was gay, but given the secrecy of the time, no one talked about it. Also some suspect it's why he kept files on other folks, so they wouldn't "out" him.

He was a dark, mean spirited person. We are better off without him. He
was Ashcroft in the "dark" and in those days folks didn't ask.

:shrug:

[dsc]

12. See post 8

[Gman]

13. Who cares... In any event it pisses the RW off when people say

he was gay. They call it "slanderous".

I don't care if he was gay or not. If it pisses off the RW to say so, then that's fine with me.

[Octafish]

14. Anthony Summers say CIA had him by the short hairs.

Seems there were these incriminating photos of him and FBI's #2 Clyde Tolson in flagrante delicto.

Whenever Hoover threatened the CIA, James Jesus Angleton would show the 8X10 glossies to somebody another. He kept the negatives. The Mafia had dupes.

[mitchum]

17. Like a bulldog with a rawhide chewtoy...

is how I've always imagined the photos of the lovebirds...

[Octafish]

18. LMFAO!

From what's been related, it was a close-up and there was no mistaking who was who. Telephotos do lead to foreshortening, but really!

Ha ha ha ha hee haw (maniacal Democratic Donkey laugh)!!!!

[fortyfeetunder]

15. I don't give a rat's a$$!!!!!!!!

Hetero or homo, he was a disgrace to law enforcement and to tampering with the civil liberties to this nation's citizens.

[mitchum]

16. Actually the transvestism case is built on shaky evidence...

alleged sightings by two less-than-reliable witnesses.
However, Hoover and Tolson's relationship (and dalliances with trade) were well-known for decades.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. As far as I know

there is no record of him ever dating women. Just his "close friendship" with Clyde Tolson.

[Laughing Mirror]

24. There is a photo of J. Edgar in drag at NYC Plaza Hotel

ballroom, that I have seen published, pre-photoshop days, and it is hilarious, but not a pretty picture. Looks like a dowager bulldog in a formal cocktail gown.

Shades of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, also fond of dressing up in women's dresses.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. Like a boomerang.

[bhairava]

22. Gay probably , cross-dresser probably not

By all accounts Clyde Tolson was his companion. The cross-dressing rumour simply comes from a time (sadly not entirely past) when most people assumed homosexuals were inverts. Naturally gay men wanted to be women and liked dressing accordingly. Modern urban legends echo the same themes. (Eg., in many cities I've been in, I've heard a story about some pro football player involved in an accident or traffic stop by police that reveals him to be wearing a dress or with a dress wearing man.)

[Laughing Mirror]

23. Gay Gangsters Edgar and Clyde

Companions. Today we say partners. Companions was the euphemism used in the press when Edgar and Clyde were a hot item about town.

Clyde got the house when J. Edgar died, I do remember reading, at the time of J. Edgar's funeral, in 1972. They were together decades too. I never knew what exactly Clyde did in life. Does anybody know? No gay marriage licenses for those two. Nope.

On the other hand, J. Edgar Hoover's baby, the corrupt and oppressive FBI, was vile in its institutionalized homophobia. As late as the late 1970s, FBI was still devoting vasts amounts of resources snooping its very own employees, even low-level GS-3 file clerks, and when finding out they were gay, abruptly firing them.

I am really very surprised when I come across people today even questioning for one moment that J. Edgar Hoover was not gay. They did not call it gay back then, the word gay was just being used in same-sex circle. But everybody in DC knew Edgar and Clyde were a couple.