The (Not So) Dirty Secrets of Hugh Hefner

When you thin about 'Playboy', the name Hugh Hefner comes to mind. Hugh is the founder of 'Playboy' and has become equally famous for his racy publication as his simultaneous relationships with young, blond women and the raucous parties held at his Playboy Mansion.

The 83-year-old ladies' man has a huge history of putting his money where his mouth is, politically speaking.

"One of the things I find really curious is when people say I've lived an amoral life," says the paterfamilias of the Playboy dynasty. "From my perspective, it's quite the contrary. I feel I've lived a very moral life. I've been on the side of angels from the beginning."

'Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel,' a documentary premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival next month, shows the deeper side of Hugh Hefner - civil rights activist and political ally of women and gays. See highlights from his interview with the Daily Beast below.

"This film has less to do with the lifestyle and more to do with my commitment to social change," Hefner says of the documentary by Oscar award-winning filmmaker Brigitte Berman.

She adds, "When people think of him, they think of the babes, the boobs, the blondes. There's another side to him, one I think is too often overlooked."

Hefner was a champion of civil rights from the very beginning of the movement. He says, "I graduated from the University of Illinois in 1948, and there were the beginnings of racial integration. There were student protests against restaurants and movie theaters that had segregation, and I took part in some of those protests." Later, when he learned that two of the Southern franchises of his Playboy nightclubs were segregated, he bought back the outlets at his own expense to integrate them.

Hefner also supported gay rights at a time when the concept was nearly unheard of in mainstream America. Playboy published a short, science fiction piece wherein homosexuality was the norm and heterosexuals were considered socially deviant. The story was originally turned down by Esquire, Hefner explains, and recalls the numerous angry letters the magazine received in response. The magazine ran a rebuttal suggesting that "if it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society, then the reverse was wrong too."

"Without question, love in its various permutations is what we need more of in this world," says Hefner now. "The idea that the concept of marriage will be sullied by same-sex marriage is ridiculous. Heterosexuals haven't been doing that well at it on their own."

And while a significant faction of self-identified feminists find his body of work - and his lifestyle - objectionable, Hefner believes his career has been an instrument of liberation for women. "I was so blindsided when the more conservative feminists attacked me. I didn't know what that was all about," he says. "I thought we were always fighting the good fight and on the same side. In fact, we were the amicus curiae in the Roe v. Wade case. I always found it strange that the feminist movement would consider sex the enemy, since it seems one of the major ways that women have been held in subjugation historically is through sexuality."

"Our TV show, 'The Girls Next Door,' is hugely popular, primarily with women," he adds. "Some women wear the rabbit on clothing with great pride. I think that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago."