F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Bibliography

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Bibliography, Alphabetical

Berube, Allan. Coming Out Under Fire:


Black, Dustin Lance (writer). "J. Edgar" (film, 2011).


Beemyn, Brett, Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories.

Material on FBI surveillance.


Buttino, Frank. A Special Agent: Gay and Inside the FBI. 1993

tells the story of his life as a closeted gay man in the FBI - and as an openly gay man fighting for the right to serve his country.


Canaday, Margot. “Finding the Lesbian in the State,” paper presented on 3 June 2005 at the Thirteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Scripps College. Cited by Potter.


Charles, Douglas M. The FBI’s Obscene File: J. Edgar Hoover and the Bureau’s Crusade against Smut. University Press of Kansas, April 2012. 200 pages, Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1825-5, $24.95


Charles, Douglas M. J. Edgar Hoover and the Anti-interventionists: FBI Political Surveillance and the Rise of the Domestic Security State. The Ohio State University Press, 2007. Charles is an assistant professor of history at Penn State University’s Greater Allegheny Campus.


Charles, Douglas M. "Communist and Homosexual: The FBI, Harry Hay, and the Secret Side of the Lavender Scare, 1943-61," American Communist History 11:1 (2012): 101-124.


Charles, Douglas M. "From Subversion to Obscenity: The FBI's Investigations of the Early Homophile Movement, 1953-58," Journal of the History of Sexuality 19:2 (May 2010): 262-87.


Charles, Douglas M. Sex Deviates": The FBI and Gays, 1937 - 1987 (book manuscript under advance contract with the University Press of Kansas, expected publication date: 2015).


Corber, Robert J. “Cold War Femme: Lesbian Visibility in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s All About Eve,” GLQ 11, no. 1 (2005): 1–22.


Corber, Robert J. Homosexuality in Cold War America: Resistance and the Crisis of Masculinity (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997)


Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G. The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press. 1988. ISBN 0-87722-532-X.

Speculates that Hoover and Tolson may have been lovers. Also speculates: "The strange likelihood is that Hoover never knew sexual desire at all." p. 108


D'Emilio, John. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities. Second Edition, 1988 - Page 124, on FBI surrveillance


D'Emlio, John, and Estelle Freedman. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in the United States. Check title.


Diamond, Sigmund. Compromised Campus: The Collaboration of Universities with the Intelligence Community, 1945-1955. Oxford University Press, 1992. 371 pages.


FBI Records: Our Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Website: See: FOIA: FBI.gov


Felt, W. Mark and O'Connor, John D. A G-man's Life: The FBI, Being 'Deep Throat,' And the Struggle for Honor in Washington. Public Affairs. 2006. ISBN 1-58648-377-3..

Denies rumors of Hoover's homosexuality, p. 167.


Flynt, Larry, and David Eisenbach. One Nation Under Sex: How the Private Lives of Presidents, First Ladies and Their Lovers Changed the Course of American History. NY: Macmillan, April 26, 2011.


Gage, Beverly, "Internal Affairs: Were J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson lovers?" Slate. Posted Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, at 1:21 PM ET (See: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/life_and_art/2011/11/clint_eastwood_s_j_edgar_were_j_edgar_hoover_and_clyde_tolson_lovers_.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2)


Haggerty, George E., ed. "U.S. Government Surveillance" pp 109-110, in Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia, Volume 2. See: http://books.google.com/books?id=L9Mj7oHEwVoC&pg=PA909&dq=FBI+Black+gay&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZTTCUJeKLoS1qgHAy4GIDA&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=FBI&f=false


Hoover, Anna Marie (née Scheitlin; 1860–1938; J. Edgar's mother) A. M. H.'s journal, says Dustin Black, contains lines like, "I'd rather have a dead son for a son rather than a lily for a son." "[Hoover's mother] was a very ambitious person in Washington, D.C., at a time when you needed a man to take you to the parties ... so you could be on his arm," he says. "And her husband was quite ill. ... I think she saw it as a great gift that she had a son who was not particularly interested in women. She could help him along with his career, and encourage that, and say, 'Probably the most important thing is your career and the admiration of your fellow man in Washington, D.C.' And I think that was what he was left with, a hole in his heart. And he tried to fill that hole with political admiration." (See: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/06/143004880/dustin-lance-black-crafting-the-story-of-j-edgar)


Hoover, J. Edgar. (Chronological order)

Address of Hon. John Edgar Hoover at the Annual Dinner of the American Newspaper Publishers Association at New York City, April 22, 1937.
Some Legal Aspects of Interstate Crime. 1938
Progress in Crime Control. 1939
Undercover Doctor (film for which Hoover gets writer credit for his book "Persons In Hiding"), 1939
Persons in Hiding (film for which Hoover gets writer credit for his book "Persons in Hiding")
Queen of the Mob (film for which Hoover gets writer credit for his book "Persons in Hiding"), 1940
Parole Fixer (film for which Hoover gets writer credit for his book "Persons in Hiding"), 1940
Persons in Hiding. Little, Brown & Co., 1941. ASIN: B000VJZM30
The Story of the FBI: The Official Picture History of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1947
Walk East on Beacon! (based on Hoover article The Crime of the Century; Hoover gets writer credit)
Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It. 1958.
Operation Abolition (documentary film for which Hoover gets writer credit), 1960
A Study of Communism‎. 1962.
American youth must know these facts: testimony of J. Edgar Hoover, Director FBI, Communist strategy, practices, and activities 1965. Young Americans for Freedom, 1965.
J. Edgar Hoover Speaks Concerning Communism. 1971.
Federal Bureau of Investigation appropriation 1972: testimony of John Edgar Hoover, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, before the House Subcommittee on Appropriations, March 17, 1971
Federal Bureau of Investigation appropriation 1973: testimony of John Edgar Hoover, former Director, before the House Subcommittee on Appropriations, March 2, 1972
ETC. add


Hyena, Hank. "J. Edgar Hoover: Gay marriage role model? Will the search for famous gay partnerships lead to adding a homophobe to the purple pantheon?" Salon, January 5, 2000 12:00 PM EST.


Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri (2003). Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence. Yale University Press. 2004. Denies rumors of Hoover's homosexuality: p. 93. ISBN 0-300-10159-7.


Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. The FBI: A History. –


Johnson, David K. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecuiton of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Governement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Cloth ISBN: 9780226404813 Published January 2004. Paper ISBN: 9780226401904 Published May 2006. E-book ISBN: 9780226401966 Published March 2010


Kessler, Ronald. The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency. PUBLICATION DATA?


Loftin, Craig M. Masked Voices: Gay Men and Lesbians in Cold War America. SUNY Press, Apr 1, 2012

FBI, page 240


Lydon, Jason. FBI Repression of LGBTQ People and Movements. April, 2011.

Link to a talk Lydon gave about the history of FBI repression on queer/trans communities. It was given at a conference, Silence Broken: Legacies of Repression and Resistance at Northeastern University in April 2011


Murphy, Lawrence. Perverts by Official Order: The Campaign Against Homosexuals by the United States Navy. Routlege, September 1988. ISBN: 978-0-86656-708-4


Navasky, Victor: Naming Names:

See on Jerome Robbins being blackmailed by the FBI to give names.


Percy, William A. and Johansson, Warren. Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence. Haworth Press. 1994. Suggests that Hoover and Tolson were lovers, pp. 85+. ISBN 1-56024-419-4..


Potter, Claire Bond. "Queer Hoover: Sex, Lies, and Political History." Wesleyan University WesScholar, Division II Faculty Publications, Social Sciences. 9-1-2006. Article on line at: http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=div2facpubs


Potter, Claire Bond. War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture. Rutgers University Press, 1998.


Powers, Richard Gid. Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover. Free Press, 1987.

Five pages include the word "homosexual", including 172 which says in part: “Hoover had a hot temper, and the homosexual rumors [about him] could be counted on to unleash it. In the margin of one Bureau memorandum on a person spreading a report about him and Tolson, Hoover wrote, ‘I never heard of this obvious degenerate. Only one with a depraved mind could have such thoughts.’ When a Cleveland . . . “. Also see page 265: Discussing Sumner Welles, Hoover “singled out a lack of self-control as the explanation for homosexual behavior. He discussed the matter with Attorney General Francis Biddle, saying that [Sumner] Welles’s behavior puzzled him because there was no pattern of homosexual behavior, only incidents that were committed while Welles was so drunk that he could not remember them afterward.” Also see page 339: "Upon learning that a [Communist] Party official was a homosexual, the FBI . . ."
Two pages include the word “homosexuality”: Page 171 says: "In October 1930, Tolson gave Hoover a photo of himself inscribed “To my best friend ‘Speed’ with Affectionate Regards, Clyde A . Tolson.”Note 73. Power's continues: "Through the years, Hoover and Tolson were continually bedeviled by accusations of homosexuality. Hoover made it Bureau policy to …." Also see page 567: Note 58. Senate Select Committee, Final Report, Book III, pp. 33-61. 45, 58. (The accusation of homosexuality was never made since the agents withdrew their request for permission to proceed when they learned that the individual stopped working for the party.)”
Page 411 includes the term "sex degenerate".


Romesburg, Don. “Longevity and Limits in Rae Bourbon’s Life in Motion,” in Transgender Migrations: The Bodies, Borders, and Politics of Transition, ed. Trystan Cotten (New York: Routledge, 2011), 130-131. Says Bourbon, who had a career as professional female impersonator, was an informant and investigated by the FBI.


Romesburg, Don. “Ray Bourbon: A Queer Biography” (MA Thesis, CU Boulder, Fall 2000), 180-187.


Streitmatter, Roger. Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America.


Summers, Anthony. Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover. Pocket Books. 1993? ISBN 0-671-88087-X.

Presents highly contested evidence that Hoover was a homosexual and cross-dressed.


Terry, Jennifer. An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society. University of Chicago Press, 1999. ISBN 0-226-79366-4.

Rumors of Hoover's homosexuality since 1940s: p. 350.


On FBI surveillance of homosexuals, see Theoharis, Athan. Chasing Spies: How the FBI Failed in Counterintelligence but Promoted the Politics of McCarthyism in the Cold War Years (Chciago, Ivan R. Dee, 2002), pp. 170-197 on FBI surveillance of homosexuals.


Theoharis, Athan. Bibliography of his published books on Wikipedia


Theoharis, Athan. [www.nowandthenreader.com/expanded-powers/preview "Expanded Powers: The FBI, the NSA, and the Struggle between National Security and Civil Liberties in the Wake of 9/11".]


Theoharis, Athan. From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover. Ivan R Dee, July 1, 1991. ISBN-10: 0929587677. ISBN-13: 978-0929587677.

Five pages include the word "homosexual", including 77, 78, 79, plus two other pages. These include allegations that Senator Henry Cabot Lodge was a homosexual. Four pages include the word "homosexuality" including pages 79, 291, 330, and one more page. Part 14 of this book contains documents about the "Sex Deviate Program." Part 15 includes documents about the "Obscene File" of the FBI. Part 17 contains documents re "Monitoring Allegations of Hoover's Homosexuality". No pages include the word "fairy" or "queer". Page 4 says that the FBI's monitoring of "obscene or indecent" literature began in 1925 and its monitoring of homosexual activities began in 1937. <DATA? CITES?>


Theoharis, Athan G. The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Publisher? 1999


United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). A Guide to Conducting Research in FBI Records


United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). FBI Records: Our Freedom of Information/Privacy Act


Von Hoffman, Nicholas. Citizen Cohn. [The Life and Times of Roy Cohn.] Doubleday; 1st edition: March 1, 1988. ISBN-10: 0385236905. ISBN-13: 978-0385236904


Wack, Larry. "Seventy Five Years Of Conjecture About J. Edgar Hoover And Clyde Tolson". Accessed November 25, 2011.

Ex-FBI agent contests rumors about the intimacy between Hoover and Tolson.


Waller, Douglas. Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage. Free Press, February 8, 2011. ISBN-10: 1416567445. ISBN-13: 978-1416567448

Donovan, head of the federal Office of Strategic Services, collected reports that Hoover was homosexual (page 128).<CITATIONS ?> The OSS was the precursor of the CIA.
"Donald Downes was one of Donovan's true oddballs. He wore a corset for a bad back and had an assortment of phobias. . . . His biographers have written that he was homosexual, although he never openly acknowledged being gay...." (page 123). By March 1942, Downes had come to Hoover's attention and the FBI director "reserved a special loathing for Downes" for spying for the British and for being a "sex deviate", as the FBI's many surveillance reports on Downes described him. (page 124)


See also:

F.B.I. and Homosexuality: A History MAIN PAGE

F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Chronology, Part 1, 1910-1949

F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Chronology, Part 2, 1950-1979

F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Chronology, Part 3, 1980-present

F.B.I. and Homosexuality: Persons and Groups Investigated