Tony Kushner's thoughts on the Foley scandal

The brilliant playwright Tony Kushner, whose body of work includes "Angels in America" and "Caroline, or Change," is the subject of an upcoming documentary "Wrestling With Angels" which shares with viewers his work and life during a particularly important time when several of his landmark works were in various stages of being written, being released, or being workshopped. He's so smart and articulate and the SRO audience at Outfest this summer ate this film up.

Anyway, AfterElton.com scored an interview with Kushner posted today and I wanted to share with you some of his thoughts about the damage of being in the closet and his right-on comments about Mark Foley:

“Oh, great, thanks! It's good for you [Foley] to take this moment to come out of the closet now that you have been revealed as a sexual predator.�

Kushner says the Foley affair is reminiscent of parts of "Angels in America," which featured a fictionalized version of Roy Cohn, a conservative gay lawyer who was willing to sell other gay people and Jews down the river for political expediency.

“All this really does is that it reminds us over and over again that the closet is a horrendous place,� Kushner says of the Foley scandal. “People who really need psychological help don't seek it. When you pathologize your entire sexual being, you are making it more likely that you aren't going to openly seek the kind of psychological help that you actually need.�