What Nixon had to say about gays and Archie Bunker

While doing some research for an article I'm working on, I came across a really fascinating article/transcription of one of the Nixon tapes. (From 1971 to 1974, Nixon arranged for virtually all of his White House conversations to be recorded. He eventually had to turn over these tapes during the Watergate proceedings.) One particular tape recording (from May 14th, 1971) has President Nixon sharing his views on gays with John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman. The transcription below is reconstructed from an article the Chicago Tribune ran in 1999, written by James Warren. The full text of that article can be found at the following link. But the most interesting part (for me) is a discussion of how a CBS television show was glorifying homosexuality, and how gays were threatening society -- and ladies' fashion:

Haldeman: It's on every week. It's usually just done in the guy's home. It's usually just that guy, who's a hard-hat. Nixon: That's right, he's a hard-hat. Looks like Jackie Gleason. Haldeman: He has this hippie son-in-law and usually the general trend is to downgrade him and upgrade the son-in-law, make the square hard-hat out to be bad. Ehrlichman: What's it called?. Nixon: Archie's Guys. [sic] Archie is sitting here with his hippie son-in-law, married to the screwball daughter. The son-in-law apparently goes both ways. This guy (enters). He's obviously queer, wears an ascot, but not offensively so. Very clever. Uses nice language. Shows pictures of his parents. And so Arch goes down to the bar. Sees his best friend, who used to play professional football. Virile, strong, this and that. Then the fairy comes into the bar-- Now, I don't mind the homosexuality, I understand it . . . Nevertheless, goddamn, I don't think you glorify it on public television, homosexuality, even more than you glorify whores. We all know we have weaknesses. But, goddamn it, what do you think that does to kids? You know what happened to the Greeks! Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo. We all know that. So was Socrates. Ehrlichman: But he [Socrates] never had the influence television had. Nixon: You know what happened to the Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags. Neither in a public way. You know what happened to the popes? They (had sex with) the nuns, that's been goin' on for years, centuries. But the Catholic Church went to hell, three or four centuries ago. It was homosexual, and it had to be cleaned out. That's what's happened to Britain, it happened earlier to France. Let's look at the strong societies: The Russians. Goddamn, they root 'em out. They don't let 'em around at all. I don't know what they do with them. Look at this country. You think the Russians allow dope? Homosexuality, dope, immorality are the enemies of strong societies. That's why the communists and left-wingers are clinging to one another. They're trying to destroy us. We have to stand up to this. Ehrlichman: It's fatal liberality. Nixon: Huh?. Ehrlichman: It's fatal liberality. And with its use on television, it has such leverage. Nixon: [Asking Ehrlichman to consider Northern California.] You know what's happened there. Ehrlichman: San Francisco has just gone clear over. Nixon: But it's not just the ratty part of town. The upper class in San Francisco is that way. The Bohemian Grove [an elite, secrecy-filled gathering outside San Francisco], which I attend from time to time. It is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine, with that San Francisco crowd. I can't shake hands with anybody from San Francisco.

[At this point the discussion turns to gay men working in the ladies fashion industry.]

Nixon: Decorators. They got to do something. But we don't have to glorify it. You know one of the reasons fashions have made women look so terrible is because the goddamned designers hate women. Designers taking it out on the women. Now they're trying to get some more sexy things coming on again. Ehrlichman: Hot pants. Nixon: [murmuring] Jesus Christ.