True-Blue Conservative Out of the Closet

WASHINGTON —  Marvin Liebman, a founder of the modern conservative movement, said today he decided to announce his homosexuality in the hope that he can counter the homophobia he said is rippling through right-wing politics.

Liebman, 66, revealed his homosexuality simultaneously in the pages of William F. Buckley’s conservative National Review and The Advocate, a Los Angeles-based gay magazine.

“The primary impact I wanted to have was on the conservative community, to alert them to the dangers of homophobia and all that comes with it,” Liebman said today.

At the same time, he said, he hopes he will be an example to other gay people still living in hiding.

“The main thing I want to do within the gay community is to help people come out--to not go through all the crap I did for 60 years,” he said.

Liebman, who calls Buckley his best friend, announced that he was homosexual in a letter to Buckley in the July 9 issue of the National Review and in an interview in the July 17 edition of The Advocate.

To Buckley, he wrote, “The conservative movement has room for lots of different people, including gays.”

Buckley--who once suggested that gay people with AIDS be tattooed on the buttocks--responded that he understands Liebman’s pain, but asked if people shouldn’t “submerge convictions having to do with that which we deem to be normal, and healthy?”

Liebman, director of special projects at the Federal Trade Commission, helped Buckley found the National Review and spent about 35 years involved in conservative causes. He helped found the Young Americans for Freedom and was involved with the American Conservative Union, the Conservative Party of New York and the Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan presidential campaigns.