A
anon_6hv78pr714xta
Guest
The story (it's long):
www.politico.com
My hunch would be that the rumors of Reagan's and Kemp's homosexuality were false. (Although I don't really care if they were, other than if it showed signs of extreme hypocrisy.) In fact, maybe the reason most of these things were not published at the time was because they were unsupported by then-journalistic standards. So why report it now? To show just how crazy some conspiracy theories can be at the highest level of politics? As a historical reminder of how bad it was for gay people not so long ago?
Some of these excerpts are really amazing, though:
"Over the course of the following week, McCloskey typed up everything he knew about the intrigues concerning the presumptive Republican presidential nominee — the 1967 “homosexual ring” scandal in Sacramento, the repeated sexual importuning of Bill Best by various Reagan aides, Bob Livingston’s dramatic escape from a dread homosexual hit squad — into a two-part, 13-page, 33-point confidential memorandum.
The crux of the document was encapsulated in point 32: “Bill [Best] expressed extreme concern about the danger of a former Hollywood actor in fact being the ‘Manchurian candidate’ and spoke at length on the nature of the Hollywood movie industry and the fact that an actor is in the hands and under the manipulation of studios, producers, directors, etc., and that he must carry out orders in order to survive. He felt that Reagan had been manipulated all of his life, and that he was essentially ‘in bondage’ to those around him.” Ronald Reagan as the ventriloquized pawn of shadowy and sinister forces — his “Kitchen Cabinet” of California millionaires, his wife Nancy, Nancy’s astrologers, the Mafia — has long been a motif in assessments of the 40th president, and what McCloskey’s contribution to the genre might have lacked in plausibility, it more than made up for with originality. Controlling Reagan in this scenario was a “network” of homosexuals who “shared an almost religious zeal against communism and [on] behalf of right-wing causes.”
"Best began calling him frantically to report that “homosexual people were very close to Reagan’s campaign leadership,” that they were “running” Reagan’s campaign, and that “the situation is absolutely out of control.” It was not until a boozy lunch with a man claiming to have been a “long time Reagan associate,” however, that Best found what he believed to be the “smoking gun” proving that Reagan was controlled by homosexuals. “Bill, you don’t understand the problem,” the man told Best. “I once engaged in a homosexual act with Reagan.”
As for Kemp, McCloskey had never known what to make of the rumors surrounding his colleague. “The big joke on Capitol Hill,” he told me in an interview at his home outside Sacramento in 2019, “was that the most dangerous position in pro football is to be Jack Kemp’s center.” After hearing from Best, McCloskey agreed that a Kemp nomination would revive the 1967 “Scandal in Sacramento,” possibly leading to revelations about the other homosexuals in Reagan’s orbit and thereby imperiling the GOP ticket."
The Plot to Out Ronald Reagan
A group of Republicans tried to stymie what they alleged was a nefarious homosexual network within the campaign of their own party’s standard-bearer. More than 40 years later, the story can finally be told.
www.politico.com
My hunch would be that the rumors of Reagan's and Kemp's homosexuality were false. (Although I don't really care if they were, other than if it showed signs of extreme hypocrisy.) In fact, maybe the reason most of these things were not published at the time was because they were unsupported by then-journalistic standards. So why report it now? To show just how crazy some conspiracy theories can be at the highest level of politics? As a historical reminder of how bad it was for gay people not so long ago?
Some of these excerpts are really amazing, though:
"Over the course of the following week, McCloskey typed up everything he knew about the intrigues concerning the presumptive Republican presidential nominee — the 1967 “homosexual ring” scandal in Sacramento, the repeated sexual importuning of Bill Best by various Reagan aides, Bob Livingston’s dramatic escape from a dread homosexual hit squad — into a two-part, 13-page, 33-point confidential memorandum.
The crux of the document was encapsulated in point 32: “Bill [Best] expressed extreme concern about the danger of a former Hollywood actor in fact being the ‘Manchurian candidate’ and spoke at length on the nature of the Hollywood movie industry and the fact that an actor is in the hands and under the manipulation of studios, producers, directors, etc., and that he must carry out orders in order to survive. He felt that Reagan had been manipulated all of his life, and that he was essentially ‘in bondage’ to those around him.” Ronald Reagan as the ventriloquized pawn of shadowy and sinister forces — his “Kitchen Cabinet” of California millionaires, his wife Nancy, Nancy’s astrologers, the Mafia — has long been a motif in assessments of the 40th president, and what McCloskey’s contribution to the genre might have lacked in plausibility, it more than made up for with originality. Controlling Reagan in this scenario was a “network” of homosexuals who “shared an almost religious zeal against communism and [on] behalf of right-wing causes.”
"Best began calling him frantically to report that “homosexual people were very close to Reagan’s campaign leadership,” that they were “running” Reagan’s campaign, and that “the situation is absolutely out of control.” It was not until a boozy lunch with a man claiming to have been a “long time Reagan associate,” however, that Best found what he believed to be the “smoking gun” proving that Reagan was controlled by homosexuals. “Bill, you don’t understand the problem,” the man told Best. “I once engaged in a homosexual act with Reagan.”
As for Kemp, McCloskey had never known what to make of the rumors surrounding his colleague. “The big joke on Capitol Hill,” he told me in an interview at his home outside Sacramento in 2019, “was that the most dangerous position in pro football is to be Jack Kemp’s center.” After hearing from Best, McCloskey agreed that a Kemp nomination would revive the 1967 “Scandal in Sacramento,” possibly leading to revelations about the other homosexuals in Reagan’s orbit and thereby imperiling the GOP ticket."
