# Are we really 'all but sure J. Edgar Hoover was gay?'

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-really-all-but-sure-j-edgar-hoover-was-gay/237948>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [April 2, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-really-all-but-sure-j-edgar-hoover-was-gay/237948 "2004-04-02T20:45:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-really-all-but-sure-j-edgar-hoover-was-gay/237948/1 "2004-04-02T20:45:11Z")

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In [this column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040402.html) the Great and Powerful Cecil states with only the minimum of equivocation that

> [@](#):
>
> Today we’re all but sure J. Edgar Hoover was gay

While I have long treasured the irony, true or not, and have a photo of The Hoov, dressed in a gingham frock, being escorted down the Atlantic City Boardwalk by his paramour, Clyde Tolson and though this photo doesn’t hardly look phony at all AND was published in that most-respected of supermarket tabloids, The Sun, do we have any evidence besides longtime suspicions and a deep desire for it to be true to support that statement?

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**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-really-all-but-sure-j-edgar-hoover-was-gay/237948/2 "2004-04-02T22:11:42Z")

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Interestingly, Cecil himself doesn’t seem quite so certain about it in [his own column on the subject.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/021206.html)

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**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-really-all-but-sure-j-edgar-hoover-was-gay/237948/3 "2004-04-02T23:20:02Z")

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> [@h.sapiens](#):
>
> Interestingly, Cecil himself doesn’t seem quite so certain about it in [his own column on the subject.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/021206.html)

Actually, if you reread that column on J. Edgar Hoover, Cecil said that it’s unlikely Hoover was a cross-dresser but that Hoover probably was gay.