# Richard Nixon's secret gay lover!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553 "2011-12-27T19:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/1 "2011-12-27T19:27:00Z")
A new bio of Richard Nixon is coming out next month that claims he has a longtime [gay lover](http://www.towleroad.com/2011/12/new-book-alleges-richard-nixon-had-longterm-gay-relationship.html#.TvoTdpjYyR4.facebook); a Cuban mafioso no less! > [@](#): > > Fulsom argues that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia‑connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles ‘Bebe’ Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon. Don’t know anything about this book or the claims that it makes, but the claim itself sounds so bizarre, I’m just going to have to check it out. I do suspect though, that it will likely amount to nothing more than a passing “undisclosed sources alleged that rumors about Nixon & Rebozo hinted that there was something more than a close friendship.” And that this claim is just being trumpeted as an advance publicity-churner. Still, the idea is fascinating. Normally, I don’t buy into the notion that every person who did anything noteworthy in history was a closet homosexual, but Nixon was so paranoically secretive about so many things, it almost fits. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/2 "2011-12-27T19:57:53Z")
I hear Nixon used to watch gay porn films very attentively, but only because he wanted to get it down pat. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/3 "2011-12-27T20:08:14Z")
I don’t know about “secret gay lover” but there were rumors the two of them would blindfold each other, slip into the White House pool and one would holler out “Bebe!” while the other answered with “Rebozo!” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/4 "2011-12-27T20:19:37Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I hear Nixon used to watch gay porn films very attentively, but only because he wanted to get it down pat. Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/5 "2011-12-27T20:53:24Z")
Rebozo?! **Not** Ford?! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/6 "2011-12-27T20:54:03Z")
I remember a National Lampoon “Young Love” comic book parody that had the whole Nixon White House as a gay bathhouse, with John Dean as the wide-eyed ingenue. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/7 "2011-12-27T21:02:13Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I remember a National Lampoon “Young Love” comic book parody that had the whole Nixon White House as a gay bathhouse, with John Dean as the wide-eyed ingenue. What did you **think** Nixon meant when he ordered them to “Stonewall it”?! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/8 "2011-12-27T21:02:22Z")
Rebozo and Nixon were certainly very tight, but there’s even less evidence that they were gay lovers than there is that J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson were - that is to say, none at all. From all I’ve ever read, R&N were just really good pals. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/9 "2011-12-27T21:04:21Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Rebozo and Nixon were certainly very tight, but there’s even less evidence that they were gay lovers than there is that J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson were - that is to say, none at all. From all I’ve ever read, R&N were just really good pals. Dude, Hoover left a collection of pix of Tolson sleeping. Pick another example. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/10 "2011-12-27T23:24:18Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Dude, Hoover left a collection of pix of Tolson sleeping. Pick another example. Did not know that. I always thought that it was very strange that Nixon had friend. That he had a name that sounded like a clown made it even better. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/11 "2011-12-28T01:30:30Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > A new bio of Richard Nixon is coming out next month that claims he has a longtime [gay lover](http://www.towleroad.com/2011/12/new-book-alleges-richard-nixon-had-longterm-gay-relationship.html#.TvoTdpjYyR4.facebook); a Cuban mafioso no less! > > Don’t know anything about this book or the claims that it makes, but the claim itself sounds so bizarre, I’m just going to have to check it out. > > I do suspect though, that it will likely amount to nothing more than a passing “undisclosed sources alleged that rumors about Nixon & Rebozo hinted that there was something more than a close friendship.” And that this claim is just being trumpeted as an advance publicity-churner. Still, the idea is fascinating. Normally, I don’t buy into the notion that every person who did anything noteworthy in history was a closet homosexual, but Nixon was so paranoically secretive about so many things, it almost fits. Sounds pretty lightweight to me-the whole quote is that Nixon ‘may have…’ If the teaser is that limp, the rest is gonna go over like a Robin Williams movie. hh ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/12 "2011-12-28T01:56:00Z")
Like Charles Manson said when he was asked if he was crazy- “Used to be ‘gay’ used to mean something- Nowadays, everybody’s gay.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/13 "2011-12-28T02:29:40Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Dude, Hoover left a collection of pix of Tolson sleeping. Pick another example. We’ve been over the Hoover/Tolson relationship many times here. Even the photos - which I’ve heard mention of, but have never seen - don’t mean they were gay lovers. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/14 "2011-12-28T02:33:51Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > We’ve been over the Hoover/Tolson relationship many times here. Even the photos - which I’ve heard mention of, but have never seen - don’t mean they were gay lovers. Well, I’m getting that from an NPR story about the movie _J. Edgar,_ and the commentator also noted that, then-and-there, if such a relationship ever were consummated, it would be over – not an inflexible rule, but the way it usually went in Washington in the 1920s-50s. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/15 "2011-12-28T02:35:58Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I hear Nixon used to watch gay porn films very attentively, but only because he wanted to get it down **pat**. Eve did you mean to say “get it down pat” or"get it down Pat"? Because there’s quite a bit of conjecture a dirty minded person could imagine.😃 ::d&r:: ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/16 "2011-12-28T02:42:53Z")
Whoosh… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/17 "2011-12-28T03:01:42Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > We’ve been over the Hoover/Tolson relationship many times here. Even the photos - which I’ve heard mention of, but have never seen - don’t mean they were gay lovers. Hell, Hoover had pictures of everyone. He had info on Eleanor Roosevelt’s affair, should he need to get her or FDR to behave for him. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/18 "2011-12-28T04:21:28Z")
> [@Strainger](#): > > Whoosh… Indeed. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/19 "2011-12-28T04:35:42Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Hell, Hoover had pictures of everyone. He had info on Eleanor Roosevelt’s affair, should he need to get her or FDR to behave for him. In _J. Edgar,_ Hoover has what he **thinks** is evidence of Eleanor Roosevelt’s affair. With a man. He does not find out about her lesbianism until, IIRC, long after FDR’s death. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553/20 "2011-12-28T05:58:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > In _J. Edgar,_ Hoover has what he **thinks** is evidence of Eleanor Roosevelt’s affair. With a man. He does not find out about her lesbianism until, IIRC, long after FDR’s death. I’ve read that: She had affairs with both men AND women [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-nixons-secret-gay-lover/607553.md?page=2)