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 Kirby Dick at the Sundance FIlm Festival in 2006. Photo by indieWIRE“There’s a right to privacy, not a right to hypocrisy,” openly gay U.S. Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass) says in the film. “People who are not subject to laws will make harsh laws… It is very important that people who make law are subject to law - it is a safeguard against unfairness. That’s a fundamental principle that our democracy is built on… And [closeted] gay people who support homophobia are violating that [principle].”
Illustrating this hypocrisy described by Kirby Dick and Congressman Barney Frank is the current Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist who receives a significant amount of screentime in “Outrage.” Crist called marriage a “sacred relationship between a man and a woman during his 2006 campaign for governor, replacing President Bush’s brother, Jeb Bush. He also openly supported the ban on gay adoption in Florida, one of the only states to do so in the country.
Yet, Crist carried on an affair with Jason Wetherington, a young staffer working for Katherine Harris, who was the Florida Secretary of State who ruled her state’s electoral votes for George Bush in the contested 2000 election before being elected to Congress, according to an alternative newspaper journalist interviewed in “Outrage.” When Crist sought higher office, Wetherington promptly left the state.
After winning, Crist was the first bachelor governor of Florida in 40 years. He had married in 1979, but divorced six months later and claimed celibacy in the ensuing decades. He began dating Kelly Heyniger during his early years in the political spotlight and she too dismissed rumors about the governor’s sexuality during interviews with the press. Their relationship, however, ended in 2007. The “Outrage” filmmakers attempted to contact Heyniger for comment, but she refused, saying, “I think I should keep my mouth shut… contact me in ten years and I’ll give you a story.”
Crist, meanwhile, has continued supporting those actively working against the rights of gays, including the appointment of two hardline anti-gay justices to the State Supreme Court.
Last summer, as the apparent Republican nominee for President John McCain was looking at potential Vice Presidential running mates, Crist married Carole Rome (Crist was seen as a potential running mate and apparently coveted the job). In the election last November, voters passed Amendment 2 in Florida, defining marriage as between one man and one woman with Crist’s full support.
“I think that if someone is in the closet and voting against gay rights then that’s hypocrisy and that’s cause for outing,” Dick told indieWIRE during the recent interview, addressing the issue of responsibility and when it’s appropriate to out people. “You can call it ‘outing,’ but honestly, it’s just reporting… It’s the same as someone who’s had an abortion and then votes against abortion, it’s hypocritical.”
“Outrage” will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival tomorrow night with former Governor Jim McGreevey, Washington D.C. councilmember David Catania, writer and activist Michelangelo Signorile, magazine editor Kevin Naff, reporter Jose Antonio Vargas, and GLAAD’s Neil Guiliano among those expected at the premiere.
Kirby Dick will participate in a pair of longer conversations about the movie a few days after its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival: a free Filmmaker Talk at the Apple Store SoHo event with indieWIRE on Thursday, April 30th at 5:00 p.m. and a panel discussion with McGreevey, Signorile, and author & activist Rodger McFarlane at the Tribeca fest on Friday, May 1st.
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