For all its biting satire, chaotic sex, and dead bodies, HBO’s The White Lotus has always felt, somehow, like a love letter to queer viewers. Maybe it’s the gay characters, maybe it’s the men in speedos — or maybe it’s creator Mike White’s ... dad?
In a recent episode ofThe Dishcastwith Andrew Sullivan, White revealed a personal chapter that could rival any plot twist from his Emmy-winning series: his father, James Melville “Mel” White, was once a ghostwriter for the religious right, penning books like Pat Robertson’s America’s Dates With Destiny and Billy Graham’s Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse — while secretly battling his identity as a closeted gay man.
"He wanted to be the next Billy Graham,” Mike says. For decades, Mel was a respected pastor, professor, and Christian filmmaker. He wrote bestsellers for televangelist giants like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Billy Graham — all while enduring exorcisms, conversion therapy, and even electric shock treatments in a desperate attempt to pray the gay away. “It was probably the worst time in my life,” Mike said, recalling the moment he realized his father was struggling with his sexuality. “It was not on his agenda to be gay. It was a very long, drawn-out process.”
Behind the scenes, Mel was unraveling. But in public, he was flying private and pulling six-figure book deals — $125,000 for five months of ghostwriting, to be exact. “It was lucrative… and he couldn’t have been an out, gay man and remained associated with these people,” Mike said. “So he stayed closeted until my sister and I got through college.”
Once his kids graduated, Mel left the church — and never looked back. He came out, fell in love with his husband, Gary Nixon, and pivoted to queer activism with the same passion he once used to sell God’s word on TV. In 1998, the couple co-foundedSoulforce, a group rooted in nonviolent resistance to confront religious-based LGBTQ+ oppression. The two also went on to compete together as a father/son duo on both The Amazing Race 14 and The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business.
“My dad would go around the country to religious colleges with gay students and have them bear witness to the harm that was being caused,” Mike said. “His gay activism was specifically targeted toward trying to convince the religious right and those that he had worked for prior.”
It’s a legacy not lost on Mike. At the 2022 Emmys, he thanked Mel during his acceptance speech, calling him out as “struggling,” but clearly with deep love. And when you look closely at The White Lotus — its tenderness, its queerness, its tragic comedy — you start to see the story of a father and son who both learned, in very different ways, that living your truth might just be the most radical act of all.
![Paulie Calafiore dishes on his steamy thirst traps: 'Everybody wants to see [me] half-naked'](https://www.out.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=59778323&width=300)
