Hello and welcome to Gladgays, a podcast all about evil and complicated gay people through history.

My name's Hugh Lemmy.

I'm a writer and author.

And I'm Ben Miller, a writer, researcher, and member of the board of the Gay Museum in Berlin.

Last week, we looked at Pierskaverston, a medieval favorite of King Edward II,

who tried to connive his way to the top of the courts, but did it so badly,

he ended up dead.

Ben, who are we talking about this week?

Fasten your seatbelts, Hugh. This one's going to be a bumpy ride.

I'm going to open with a quote from the historian Robert Cairo, who said, quote, there's an old saying,

all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but the more I've learned,

the less I believe it. Power doesn't always corrupt. What power always does is reveal.

When a guy gets into a position where he doesn't have to worry anymore, then you see what he wanted

to do all along,

end quote. Who does that make you think of in the universe of world historical bad gays?

I can think of a few people, but I'm not going to have to tell me.

Well, today we are going to be talking about J. Edgar Hoover.

Oh, my God.

Jay Edgar Hoover, who was the director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, and who started his career in public service in the mailroom of the Justice Department and rose to be the United States national champion

against its foes, both internal and external. First, the Nazis, and then the communists,

and everyone who wanted to voice political dissent. Jay Edgar Hoover, who once said, and I quote,

justice is incidental to law and order.

...