Queer Issue: New J. Edgar Hoover Biopic Will Make Former FBI Director Gay.

I came across this recently on Bilerico, and apparently there will be a film that will make the former FBI director gay. Currently Clint Eastwood is attached to direct and Leonardo DiCaprio, Judi Dench, and Arnie Hammer are going to be starring it. Dustin Lance Black is the screenwriter.

I actually have a problem about this. I've written before about how Hollywood will straighten out anything it can get it's hands on. The thing is, this situation the exact opposite, as there is very little substantial evidence that Hoover is actually gay or into crossdressing. Susan Rosenstiel, the one who originally claimed to have witnessed Hoover wearing a dress, served time for perjuring herself and had established motivation for defaming Hoover. Furthermore, the relationship Hoover had with Clyde Tolson has been speculated that it was romantic/sexual in nature, but there is no hard evidence that their relationship was anything but that of close friends.

Here's why I have a problem. With all the well known queer historical figures who have made significant and positive contributions to society, why focus on on an individual where the evidence is not exactly beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt and whose contributions to America consisted of aggressively persecution non-criminal groups and individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr. He also actively denied the existence of the Mafia and organized crime.

In short, what I want is a movie about actual legitimate queer historical figures, such as Sylvia Rivera, Bayard Rustin, Ruth C. Ellis, Alan Turing, or Harry Hay, Socrates, Plato, Solon of Athens, Michel Foucault, or James Dean. There are ultimately so many to choose from, that I fail to see the point of a movie about a historical figure who in all probability was not gay at all.