Now that your film is a matter of public record, do you think it might make it easier for the mainstream media to report on these issues?  For example, the next time Charlie Crist runs for office, the press can ask him about Outrage instead of saying, “Are you gay?”

I think it will make it easier to some degree.  Some of the mainstream media are still having a very big problem.  The case of Charlie Crist is interesting because I was told that he was going to be at event soon and the local Tampa-St. Pete television station–the same station you saw in the film where they asked him about the gay rumors—they’re going to ask him again.  That should be interesting.

In the archival footage you show of Crist, there are a number of hilarious deer-in-headlight moments that seem pretty transparent.

With Crist, it’s kind of sad because he’s a very skilled politician and he’s in really the right state for his middle-of-the-road approach.  If had chosen not to get married and perhaps not to support Amendment 2, I believe he could have come out six years from now and been a very viable out candidate for the presidential nomination in 2016.  I think he made a real miscalculation here by thinking that the only way he could run for the presidency was closeted.

Maybe Outrage will inspire him to come out.

I think it would be very inspirational if he came out and said, “It’s been very difficult for me but I want to be honest even if it’s the end of my political career and I fully support civil rights for all American citizens.”  I think a lot of his constituency and a lot of Democrats would say, “How refreshing, an honest politician.”  He might go very far on coming out.

What do you hope comes from Outrage?

Firstly, a sense of outrage that all American citizens do not have a 100% rights and that this is something that should happen now.  There should be zero tolerance for anyone who suggests waiting or that there’s any kind of dual class of citizenship.

Secondly, I hope it exposes this hypocrisy because it’s something that the mainstream media has just stayed away from.  Finally, I actually hope it contributes to the demise of the closet in American politics.  I got an e-mail yesterday from a Democratic politician.  They’re in a district where they thought there was no way that they could run as an out candidate but after seeing my film, they said, “I’m very seriously reconsidering.  I think I’m going to run as an out candidate.”

The more candidates we have who run as out, the more this homophobia in the society will subside.

Watching your film in the current climate, with Obama in the White House and marriage laws changing in a number of states, I felt hopeful that bashing gay people to gain political power isn’t going to fly the way it used to.  Am I deluding myself or do you feel hopeful as well?

I think things are changing and there’s also a generational aspect to it.  Younger people are much less homophobic but I want to be vigilant about it at all times.  In some ways, this whole anti-gay hysteria came out of the blue.  In the 1970s, there was a period there where it seemed like we were well on our way to full equality and then suddenly everything started moving in the other direction.

I’m not someone who believes that there’s this inevitable positive movement in history.  I think it’s very cyclical and things can change very quickly.

Check out a separate interview 365gay News did with Kirby Dick, below.