Is Condi Rice a Lesbian?

There have long been rumors about Condi Rice’s sexual orientation. When Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) made reference in a senate hearing that Condi wouldn’t have children, so she would never be faced with making the ultimate sacrifice of losing a son or daughter to war, many Beltway insiders assumed Boxer had taken a swipe at Condi’s closeted gay life and indirectly outed her.

Recently, author Michelangelo Signorile sat down with Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, whose new book, The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy, for an interview. The revelations were, stunning, to say the least.

Most note worthy is the news that Rice’s “closest male friend” is openly gay, a man by the name of Coit D. Blacker, a Stanford professor (Rice served as the provost as Stanford in the late 1990s for six years) and a Democrat who served in the Clinton administration. Blacker, whose partner is also mentioned, advised Al Gore’s campaign in 2000, while his close friend Rice served as a chief confidante for a president who has tried to make gays into second class citizens in the U.S. Constitution.

But here’s the kicker.

Rice’s “closest female friend” is a woman named Randy Bean, who is unmarried and whose sexual orientation is not stated. She is described as a “liberal progressive;” and a documentary filmmaker who works at Stanford University. She and Rice and Blacker (again, who has a partner) are discussed as a “second family,” a term Bean uses, also saying that, “on friends, [Rice] goes narrow and deep.”

According to newly revealed information in the book (which Kessler found through real estate records), the two women, Rice and Bean (yes, hilarious), own a home together and have a line of credit together. Bean explains this to Kessler by saying that she had some medical bills that drained her financially years ago, and Rice and Blacker helped her out by buying the house with Bean. But over time Blacker sold his share of the house to Rice and Bean, and then Rice would later get the line of credit with Bean to do some renovations on the home. Kessler, when pressed, said he did not know if this meant there was something more to the relationship between the women beyond a friendship.

If Condi Rice is a lesbian, what angers many liberals and progressives both in and outside the LGBT community is, Rice has made a professional career of working for the most vehemently homophobic presidential administration in history. Remember, it was Condi’s boss, George W. Bush, who is an advocate of a Constitutional amendment to make gay marriage illegal in all 50 states.