Nowhere in American history will you find a man as influential as the late J. Edgar Hoover. He was the director, the founder, the entire force behind the Federal Bureau of Investigation from the year 1924until his death in the early seventies, fighting off incoming presidents who had every intention of shutting down the Bureau as soon as they stepped through the White House door, and through his ambition he irrevocably changed the course of criminal profiling and investigating in this country forever. He was a fiercely powerful man, vindictive and secretive, but years later we are surprised to learn that he was rumored by many people, even by some within his extremely tight knit social circle, to be a homosexual.
How could this be?
One of the most powerful men in early twentieth century America, gay?
Back then it would have been shocking and unheard of (indeed, still today, how many gay politicians do you see running for office?), and if the public had ever caught wind of it there is no doubt in my mind it would have cost Hoover his job and the Bureau it's entire reputation. Couldn't he just simply have chosen not to be gay?
The movie J. Edgar starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover paints an interesting picture of nature contrasted with nurture. J. Edgar was bred to be an ambitious man by his mother, whom he lived with until her death. He was raised to be "strong, not to wilt like a little flower," to be successful in politics, and yet through it all there was this terrible little secret he had, threatening to destroy him at every turn. He must have known it; he must have known that his essential nature was in conflict with the way he had been nurtured. The result was a lonely life, lived in the shadows of our great country.
So what do you guys think? How would you feel if you were J. Edgar Hoover?
