Mom....'I'd rather have a dead son than a daffodil.'
(First I am not homophobic or intending this as any type of slur)
Mr Hoover may have been homosexual, but he was as miserable a public figure as any I recall seeing portrayed. Desperate to make mama proud, he totally subjugated his own desires, to what he thought would make his mother proud.
The scene of the women laughing at him as he left the table, after one insisted he dance. Which followed only a few moments Edgar and Tollson salaciously holding hands and agreeing to go to the club, only after dropping mother off at the hotel, and the juxtaposition of the womens derisive laughter, and mothers scathing quote about daffodils vs death, was both pitiful and tragic.
No sir, few men, gay or straight would wish Mr Hoovers life, his intrapsychic angst, on their worst enemy.