The Reader‘s J.R. Jones sparked a lively discussion two weeks ago with his review of Outrage, a new documentary about closeted pols with antigay agendas. I weighed in myself, not letting the fact I hadn’t seen the movie stop me. Then I headed over to the Music Box with my wife to see the film.
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In other words, Outrage presents a case for outing that it isn’t totally committed to. Before seeing the movie I was uneasy about two arguments for outing that I’d seen Jones’s critics make. To my discomfort, the first was introduced right at the top of the film. In any context “It’s for their own good” is a pernicious justification, and this context is no exception. But it exists in Outrage as a sentiment that Dick doesn’t endorse. As impressive as former New Jersey governor James McGreevey and former Arizona congressman Jim Kolbe are when they talk about the blessings of coming out of the closet and leading honest lives, I didn’t see them urging the filmmakers to force other closeted politicians to enjoy the same blessings. Imagine a scene in which Kolbe, after saying he felt 40 years younger after he came out, is asked to name other gay congressmen. Kolbe would probably have refused to cooperate, and the moment would have thrown an interesting light across the movie. Dick doesn’t give us that moment, but I think such a light flickers regardless, if dimly.
That’s not hypocrisy; it’s denial. And the impression left by so many of the allegedly closeted officials on display—and by McGreevey and Kolbe in their reflections—is less of mendacity than of torment. Is it simply hypocritical to tell yourself that although you’ve succumbed to something so shameful you cannot speak its name, you will gallantly oppose it in every way you can, including with your votes? Yes, to someone punished by those votes “hypocrisy” is a word that will quickly come to mind. But it doesn’t begin to completely describe the psychological processes at work and Dick knows it.
