Outrage

The big question whether or not it serves the cause to out those closeted politicians. That is a question that is outside of this documentary.

The big question here is whether or not the makers of this film did a good job of covering the issue. Expectations were high on my part as Kirby Dick did the outstanding "This Film Is Not Yet Rated." I was captivated throughout by the stories and those who told of their experiences with the individuals covered. I really thought my own Charlie Crist would just have insinuations, but I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Florida will have her first gay Senator.

The fact shown that the Republican Party used the marriage issue to get votes was repugnant. But, these people will stop at nothing to gain and maintain power. They truly have no shame.

Outstanding.

Outing somebody,s sexual preferences is a complex thing. People are certainly entitled to privacy, even when they are public figures. The trouble starts when people spew hatred for gay people, vote against their basic rights, and in a same time have gay relationships out of public eye. There is an exception to the privacy rule. When you have a man who testifies about sickness of gay people, tries to cure them from their "perversity" and then gets caught with a young gay male escort, he has it coming. " Outrage" is a very good documentary. It lets the subjects of the story tell us all we need to hear. It doesn't lecture or pressure us , it just tells it like it is.

Kirby Dick's ("Twist of Faith", "This Film Is Not Yet Rated") new exposé is as revolting as it is provocative. Featuring interviews with journalists, activists, media personalities and the film subjects themselves, Kirby exposes all the hypocrisy behind closeted elected officials (Larry Craig, Ed Schrock, Jim McCrery, David Dreier and Charlie Crist, among others) who lied their way into high office, claiming to be morally conservative family men while living a double life.

Naturally, the issue of "outing" these men is morally questionable – but as Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank (a former closeted official himself) says, "There's a right to privacy, not to hypocrisy". And hypocrisy is all there is, since once these men are in power, they shockingly, without exception, work against any and every gay right. Theories are discussed about what causes closeted gay men to join those who work against them, joining forces against what would technically be their "community". An interesting analysis goes way back to Roy Cohn and McCarthyism, and to the kid called a "fag" in school that will join the bully to save his own skin. As simplistic as this example sounds, it certainly has a lot of truth in it.

"Outrage" is a terrific documentary because it isn't one sided. It doesn't suggest that every closeted gay person is a hypocrite, and from a predominantly homosexual point of view (documentarians and interviewees), it's acknowledged how difficult the "coming out" process can be and how each person deserves to have their right to privacy respected. However, all citizens also should know what's behind their superiors' speeches, and the fact that these people are working against homosexuals as they lead double lives themselves is repulsing, heartbreaking, and most infuriating. It's one of the most incendiary, straightforward documentaries I've seen in a while, and I hope it gets enough exposure to provoke some serious discussions.

The so-called log cabin Republicans, elected officials or not, tend to put financial and professional reasons above anything else, and since they chose to live a life of lies, they don't care about the rights other people should be allowed to have. I know gay Republicans who will say "Oh, they make such a fuss about gay marriage and such... you can always live with someone, there's no need to have a paper to prove it", etc. Well, personally, I even agree with that in a way, since I don't think I will ever feel the need to legally marry myself (but I'd like to think that, if I change my mind, I will have the right to do it). But what about the concept of equality? Just because you don't care about it, don't you think John and Stuart should have the right to get married if they want to? I can be accused of being biased myself as I say this, that I'm generalizing all gay Republicans by saying this... which is true. But I firmly believe that what they tend to do is put anything that will benefit them professionally or financially above anything else, including the fight for equal rights and the respect for others. In doing that, they lose their own dignity, and if you support just one of these hypocritical officials, you're one of them.

This is a never-ending discussion, but an important one. It's a question of moral integrity to really know those who are being elected so we can actually claim for our rights – whether you are gay, straight, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, black, white, yellow or blue. 10/10.

An indictment of closeted politicians who lobby for anti-gay legislation in the United States.

I found something missing here, though I am not sure what. I feel like there was some muckraking going on, but the film never completely raked the muck -- there was still something more they could have done. For one thing, they never really touched the religion connection -- perhaps a gay man is in the closet to try to appease what he sees as God's wishes?

Most interesting is viewing the 2009 film from a 2013 vantage point. Here we have the Republicans pushing for a same-sex marriage ban through a federal amendment. Four years later, we have same-sex marriage spreading to more states and even Rush Limbaugh saying the conservatives have lost the issue. What was seemingly impossible a decade ago is almost common sense now. And what this film shows is a step in that path we have taken as a country.

Outrage is aptly titled. Very aptly. It is an indictment of closeted politicians who lobby for anti-gay legislation in the U.S. They are dishonorable people who do dishonorable things out of weakness. If one were to tell me they thought this film was too judgmental of its subjects, I would disagree on the grounds that it remains objective to its found footage and interviewees, but I still might understand the opinion. The film is designed to outrage us by showing us the grave, sad and cyclical injustice that is being done to the gay community right this minute. But it should, because it is a view of the subject that is sadly muted in day-to-day consciousness.

The reason we have generally successful politicians in a technologically developed melting pot like, apparently, the United States such as Sen. Larry Craig, Gov. Charlie Crist, Rep. David Dreier and Ed Koch is because people have family and friends whose rights as a person they vote against because they think Charlie Crist is just the most charming guy, or Larry Craig wants to do something as abstract and arguable as protecting our family values. The year is 2009 in a superpower country that claims to the rest of the world to be free and ideal. Is there any significant reason to be nice about it anymore? Kirby Dick went to great lengths to be more honest than anyone else has ever been about the MPAA Ratings Board for his vital documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated. Doing the same here is the sole key to his achieving a state of pure rage and disheartenment at the vanity, the spinelessness, the disingenuousness required to be embraced as a candidate in the Republican Party in this day and age. Yes, even that one. Of course he seems honest and down-to-earth and brave. The subjects of this documentary appear the same to that very constituency.

In This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Dick actually began an official investigation into the lives of his subjects. Similarly here, he accompanies an investigator already working on uncovering the truth about the candidates who have fought to conform to an ideology in order to use a public office to seal the deal against those who share their pain and deal with it to more constructive ends. We see some of them, too. And they make a lot more sense when they talk, because they're Mass. Rep. Barney Frank, playwrights Larry Kramer and Tony Kushner, and columnist Michelangelo Signorile.

The film is exactly what your conservative family and friends need to see. I know about the unspoken peace treaty on talking politics, and you don't have to. Just recommend a documentary that just blew you away called Outrage and tell them to sit down because they've got to watch it. It beats the eggshell-ridden small talk about school and work and other people.