A Hidden Life

Overview

On May 5, 2005, the residents of Spokane, Washington, awoke to one of the strangest headlines in the town’s history: “West Tied to Sex Abuse in ’70s, Using Office to Lure Young Men.” The popular, socially conservative Republican mayor of Spokane, Jim West, had been outed by the town’s newspaper, which told the sordid story of a man with two lives: in public, he had once sponsored legislation forbidding gays from teaching in public schools, while in private, the paper alleged, he was trawling for young men online, using the trappings of his office to lure them into sexual relationships. But as bizarre as the revelations were, so too were the newspaper’s methods. FRONTLINE producers Rachel Dretzin and Barak Goodman investigate the complex relationship between politics, sexuality, fear, and judgment in one all-American town.