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This American Presidential election race hasn't been a pleasant thing to watch. In fact, it's been a well-manicured, expensively-buffed torrent of slander, seeking to debase candidates on both sides. All the usual smear campaign tactics have been employed, as you'd expect, but a man named Jerome R. Corsi (above) has a new one to unleash: that Obama is a closeted homosexual.

Yep, I know, big news right? Big, crazy, made-up news that somehow typifies American political discourse. Anyway, the weird thing is that Jerome isn't just some hillbilly crackpot making outrageous, homophobic claims at an NRA barbecue, but a Harvard-educated journalist who writes for World Net Daily, an ultra-conservative news organisation that boasts headlines like "Kids Drink 'Gay' Kool-Aid". He also likes to appear on white supremacist radio shows, like The Political Cesspool, which might give you an idea of the kind of guy he is.

Between being a right wing media sensation, he's found the time to write a couple of books on Obama – books that allege he was molested as a child, is a Communist and, of course, that he's gay. I called him up to find out where these accusations came from.

VICE: So how did you stumble across these allegations that Obama is gay?

Jerome R. Corsi: I started researching Obama in 2006 and wrote two books on him. In 2008, I wrote The Obama Nation, then, in 2011, I wrote a book about the birth certificate debate. The issue of Obama's sexuality has had rumours surrounding it since I first started studying him. There were rumours even when he was the US senate, in fact. I just needed some sources to validate it.

Why are those rumours only coming out around election time?

Well, Obama has been weakened significantly since he was first elected, when it was difficult to criticise him at all. More and more people are starting to resent or oppose Obama, so, as this happens, more people are ready to talk about these issues.

And one of the first people to talk was Larry Sinclair, right? Could you tell me more about him?

Larry wrote a book about having two homosexual encounters with Obama in 1999, when Obama was state senator.

Larry's not the most reliable of sources, though. He's a self-confessed fraudster, wanted in Arizona.

Yeah, I didn't believe everything he said, but his story was always consistent. Also, a guy called Daniel Parisi brought a defamation case against Larry for writing the book, but a federal district judge threw it out of court, which isn't to say Larry was telling the truth, but this judge clearly didn't think he was lying either. That was the turning point for me. Also, the fact that in his story he was the initiator, always made me think there must be something to it, because he didn't try to make himself look like the good guy. He said he got in a limousine and told the driver to drive around, cruising for guys.

Who was the driver?

I don't know. That's always been one of the problems with Larry's story. He supposedly said to the driver, "I want a guy" and the driver said, "I got the exact guy for ya," then took him to meet Obama.

Right. And what about Donald Young? How does he fit into the story?

Donald Young was a black choirmaster who was killed execution-style in Chicago in 2007. Rumours were that Young had been having a homosexual relationship with Obama and was murdered so the story couldn't get out.

You’ve also talked a lot about the mysterious wedding ring Obama wore in his youth.

Ah, yes. Obama had been wearing this ring on his wedding finger since he was at Occidental College. When he was president of the law review magazine at Harvard, they did a mock issue and mentioned how he would always deflect questions about the ring. There are also photos of him in Africa in '85 or '86 wearing the ring, so he had it on for at least a decade before he got married. A lot of people suggest it was either to keep women away, or to act as some kind of wink-wink gay sign.

Yeah, that, or just a fashion accessory, I suppose. There are suggestions something happened with his roommate too, right?

Yes. A guy called John Drew said he and Obama had lunch together one day, and saw Obama come in with his Pakistani roommate, Mohammed Hasan Chandoo. Drew told me in an interview that he was convinced that they were lovers at the time. Candoo has been married and has children, but he wouldn't be the first guy in history to have a family and be gay or bisexual.

**I guess we’ll have to take his word as gospel then. I thought Obama was supposed to be attracted to older white men, though? ** Yep, that’s been the story all along; older white men. I’ve found two or three who claimed to have had relationships with Obama, but they won’t go on the record.

I can imagine. They probably don't want to be executed, right? What first made you think that Obama is gay?

From the very first time I watched him from the senate gallery, I suspected that he might be. The way he talked to other men was very intimate and over-comfortable, y'know? Then, when I started preparing interviews for The Obama Nation, I was told stories about Obama being gay almost from the first confidential interview I had. There’s a big culture of homosexuality in politics in Chicago. There's a place called the Purple Hotel, where male politicians would allegedly rent a room, take crystal meth and special K and invite male and female prostitutes for a sex party.

Do you think that Obama’s kids are his?

I’m not going to answer that. I’ve got some information on it, but I don’t have enough to be really confident. It’s certainly a question that I've been thinking about, too.

You’ve also said that Obama is a Communist. Where did you get that from?

In his autobiography, Obama talks about this guy Frank who he spent a lot of time with as a kid. Frank turned out to be Frank Marshall Davis, who was a member of the Communist party in the 1930s. There's a suggestion that Davis is Obama's real biological father, but regardless of that, he's definitely his intellectual father. A lot of themes Obama adopts were first expressed by Davis and Davis was definitely a commie. Obama took out all the references to Davis in the audio version of his book, so he was clearly trying to hide it.

Nowadays, Obama is continuing with themes of redistributing income and has made it abundantly clear to people that he really does follow this socialist model. It has been well established in American politics that Obama is a leftist, a socialist and virtually a Communist.

Do you think he'll turn America into a Communist society if he's re-elected?

I believe he will do everything he can to try and achieve that goal, yes.

**And you've mentioned this guy Jeremiah Wright before, who arranges "down-low" marriages of gay men to women who can't find a husband. The thing is, Michelle Obama is quite an attractive, outgoing woman – why would she agree to an arrangement like that? ** I’ll be happy to give her to you! [Laughs] I think the general perception of Michelle in the United States is that she’s quite difficult, quite bitter and quite angry. She gives off that persona at conventions and appearances where she's the loving mother and all the rest of it, but I think there's another side to her.

**I also read your article that suggested Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in Benghazi, was also gay. ** I didn't say he was gay outright, I just said there was a lot of evidence that suggested he was gay. Also, Obama's state department is very heavily recruiting LGBT for foreign service. I may have mentioned in the article that there was at least one incident where, in Pakistan, our embassy held a gay pride day and it caused a riot in Pakistan.

Do you think the riots in Benghazi were caused by people finding out about ambassador Stevens’ sexuality?

I don’t have any proof of it, but it's certainly occurred to me, because it looks like he was targeted. It's odd, because Stevens helped the rebels, so he should have been a friend, but then they ended up targeting him. There has to be some explanation why Stevens was targeted and why Hillary Clinton is doing everything she can to shut down an inquiry, rather than answering questions.

Some people would say that this is all just political slander, in light of the fact that it's election year and these allegations just happen to be coming out now.

I think the reason people are coming out with this stuff now is because there's an increasing sense that Obama's going to lose, so sources are freer to release information than they were six months ago. I think, if he loses, you're going to see a huge increase in Obama's male ex-lovers telling their stories.

Why exactly is this of so much interest to you? I've read articles where people suggest your obsession with Obama reflects your latent homosexuality.

Yeah, some media has devoted more time to investigating me than it has Obama, but my sexuality is pretty simple; I've been married a long time and have always been heterosexual. I'm not antagonistic towards gays – I've had many gay friends – but I'm not gay myself.

Oh. So what's the big deal if Obama's gay or not? I had you down as some homophobic whackjob who wanted to prove Obama was gay out of hatred for homosexuals.

No, the issue for me is hypocrisy. I might have some attitudes towards sexuality, but God says to not make judgements about other people, so I refuse to get into it; it's not an issue. But hypocrisy is an issue, especially in politics. The majority of people aren't going to care if he is gay, but he has to be forthright about it. If he lies about it, it becomes a totally different issue. It's the same as his birth certificate. He was happy to be "born in Kenya" while he was trying to sell books, but as soon as he started running for President, he completely changed his story.

He was forthright about his drug use, though. Why wouldn't he be forthright about this?

They knew they had to be open about that issue, so they tried to turn it into an aspect of his cool, youthful persona, but I think they viewed his homosexuality as a liability, so they lied about it. Politicians who think they have to lie to create this mythical persona are living in a past era, and if they lie about their persona, they also tend to lie about their politics.

Until people like you uncover the truth?

I don't take any great joy in doing it, it's just what I do. The people are intelligent; you can't lie to them forever.