Two years before the Stonewall Riots on March 7th, 1967, CBS Reports presented an hour-long broadcast “documentary” about homosexuality hosted by Mike Wallace called “The Homosexuals”
Taking three years to make, principal filming took place starting in the fall of 1964 and continued through early 1965. Gay men were interviewed in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Charlotte and New York City. The identities of several of the men were obscured, either in shadow or, in one instance, behind a large potted palm tree.
Also interviewed were psychiatrist Charles Socarides, who strongly advocated the position that homosexuality is a mental disorder, and fellow psychiatrist Irving Bieber, who shared Socarides’ opinion of homosexuality as pathology. Interspersed with these interview segments was footage cinema verité style, of the inside of a gay bar along with shots of hustlers working a street corner and of all things a gay teenager being arrested in a public sex sting..
Charles Socarides, said when he was he interviewed ‘There is no such thing as a happy homosexual’; ‘these homosexuals are by nature unable to form steady relationships, rather their prerogative is a series of one-night-stands and hookups’. Socarides was one of many professional homophobic bigot psychiatrists of the day who earned virtually their entire living by promoting homophobia. (In a sublime irony of history, Socarides’s son, Richard Socarides, is openly gay; he served as a public policy advisor in the Clinton White House.)
And almost all of Mike Wallace’s commentary echoed Socarides disparaging views of homosexuals.
The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested or capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of one–chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits. And even on the streets of the city — the pick-up, the one night stand, these are characteristics of the homosexual relationship.
For his part, Wallace came to regret his participation in “The Homosexuals”. “I should have known better,” he said in 1992. Speaking in 1996, Wallace stated, “That is — God help us — what our understanding was of the homosexual lifestyle a mere twenty-five years ago because nobody was out of the closet and because that’s what we heard from doctors — that’s what Socarides told us, it was a matter of shame.”
LGBT activist Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out labels the broadcast “the single most destructive hour of anti-gay propaganda in our nation’s history. ” and that “The Homosexuals’ not only had a devastating effect on public opinion at the time but also was a nuclear bomb dropped on the psyches of gay and lesbian Americans, who, prior to this show, had never been represented as a group on national television.”
The anti-gay arguments made in “The Homosexuals” in 1967 are still used today by right-wing extremist and “Christians” who seek to harm and destroy the LGBT Community today.
“The Homosexuals” is a must watch for anyone interested in LGBT history and how the past still affects the present and our equality to this very day.
Uptight neighbor Arthur has launched a crusade to close a nearby gay bar, so Maude convinces him he should visit the bar before condemning it. A classic 1970s sitcom “gay episode” and still unfortunately somewhat relevant today.
CBS has placed a high ranking executive on leave Wednesday after it was disclosed that he was making homophobic and sexually inappropriate comments at work.
Vincent “Vinnie” Favale (pictured above), the senior vice president of talent for CBS Television and a founder of Comedy Central, regularly called LGBT guests on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert “homos” and insinuated that Colbert himself was gay himself.
“He would frequently call Stephen gay because of his seeming inability to interview women well,” a former CBS executive told CNN. “He would say this in rehearsals, the control room. Sometimes the CBS attorney would even be present, which to me is just shocking that nothing was done.”
Other employees reported that Favale frequently made vulgar comments, including once when there was construction outside the office.
“There was a big drill, and we looked outside and went to the window. [Favale] compared the drill to ‘a big black dick’ as it was drilling into the ground,
Favale allegedly also made derogatory remarks about Jennifer Hudson and Hugh Jackman.
“I’ll never forget the day he told me he got four erections while watching Jennifer Hudson rehearse,” a female former CBS executive told CNN, remembering when Oscar winner Hudson was preparing for her performance on The Late Show in 2015.
When Jackman came on the show to promote Logan, anemployee said Favale mocked him as being “gay” and “in the closet,” and called his marriage a “fake.”
Rachel Maddow was also an alleged target of Favale’s homophobia and misogyny. Two people said they heard him ask “Who wants to see that ugly man on TV?” when the MSNBC anchor was a guest. Another witness claimed Favale made a similar comment about another well-known lesbian in entertainment who appeared on The Late Show.
In a statement to CNN Favale responded saying, “I have spent my entire career working at comedy shows, where there has always been a wide latitude to make transgressive jokes while preparing the program. While we make a lot of jokes, these jokes attributed to me, whether said in rehearsals or production meetings, are being taken out of context and were not said in the way being presented here.”
Millennial media”journalist” and members of a focus group are whining more than Manischewitz and are angrily objecting to and stomping their little feet over the contents of a CBS’ new comedy series The Great Indoors because it portrays them (and lets be honest in some cases accurately) as coddled, easily offended and thin-skinned idiots.
Recounted by the shows executive producer Mike Gibbons at a Television Critics Association panel this week.
A Millennial media member interrupted Gibbons. “I’m a millennial myself. How are we so coddled, and what about our overly politically correct workplace bothers you?” she asked, like she meant it to sting.
Stephen Fry who stars, alongside Joel McHale as one of the founders of The Great Outdoors magazine, jumped in to note there is “an element of coddling” and “an element in which you have it tougher than the generation before.”
“Yeah, no shit,” Millennial Media Member snarked at Fry, whose family “generations before” includes relatives sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps.
The Millennial Media Member wanted her question answered by Gibbons, not Fry, and said so in no uncertain terms.
“A great example is how you interrupted my answer,” Gibbons shot back.
Another media member, non-millennial, asked Gibbons if he was “worried” that the show would be dismissed as “middle-aged white guy complaining about his lot in life and having to deal with millennials.”
Joked Gibbons, “Our show is going to make America great again,” .
“So you are the Trump show?” Non-Millennial Media Member snapped back. “I’m just seeking clarification.”
“Irony comes through in print, right?” Gibbons quipped.
Back to Millennial Media Members: “Do you want millennials to watch your show?” one asked. “Cause you come out here and, ‘Ha, ha, ha, millennials are so sensitive and PC,’” that person asked, calling it “so negative.”
This time McHale jumped in, saying that if the show is offending millennials, it’s “the best strategy ever.”
You have to love the the fact that that overly sensitive millennials who can’t take a joke were upset about a show that skewers overly sensitive millennials who can’t take a joke.
Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer began today’s broadcast by noting that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) had determined that Tony Perkins’ and his organization, the Family Research Council, was a “hate group.”
“The Southern Poverty Law Center has branded the Family Research Council an anti-gay hate group,” Schieffer explained as if it were a warning to his viewers. “We have been inundated by people who say we should not even let you appear because they, in their view — quote — you don’t speak for Christians.”
And Tony Perkins didn’t deny it.
Perkins appeared on FTN with Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry refused to appear face to face with Wolfson and have a discussion , and would only appear if it was “back to back.” comments.
54 AD– Nero becomes Emperor of Rome. Nero married two men in legal ceremonies, with at least one spouse accorded the same honours as an empress. Gay relationships are accepted and institutionalized in this time period.
1102 AD – The Council of London took measures to ensure that the public, quite tolerant of homosexuality at the time, knew that it was sinful, marking a significant shift in church attitudes towards homosexuality, which previously had been more or less indifference, or very mild condemnation. Many priests were homosexuals, likely one of the causes of the change in attitude, as moral reformers such as Bernard of Cluny called for change.
1250 – 1300 AD – “Between 1250 and 1300, homosexual activity passed from being legal in most of Europe to incurring the death penalty in all but a few contemporary legal compilations.” – John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (1980)
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May 11
1999 – Billy Bean the former outfielder and left-handed hitter for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres makes headlines in when he became only the second baseball player to publicly come out, three years after his retirement. It was a long struggle to get there. As a closeted pro athlete, he struggled to juggle his secret and his career. He divorced his wife in 1993 and secretly moved in with his first lover. When his lover died of AIDS, Bean didn’t attend the funeral because he was too frightened that his secret would be revealed. “Why was it so impossible to think that a baseball player could grieve for a man?” he later reflected. “That was a terrible, terrible decision I made.”
His 2003 book, Going the Other Way: Lessons from a Life In and Out of Major League Baseball, chronicles the ups and downs of his life as a gay man and baseball player. He is currently a real estate agent in Miami.
May 12
1975 – California decriminalizes same-sex acts between consenting adults. Assembly member Willie Brown and state Senator George Moscone (who will later in his career be assassinated along with LGBT civil rights great Harvey Milk in San Francisco) co-sponsor AB 489, the “Consenting Adults Bill,” which decriminalizes sexual activity between consenting adults. Governor Jerry Brown signs the bill into law on May 12, 1975, and it goes into effect January 1, 1976.
May 13
1944 – Novelist Armistead Maupin is born. Maupin becomes famous for his Tales of the City novels, the first portions of which were published initially as a newspaper serial in The Pacific Sun and later picked up San Francisco Chronicle, and then reworded into a popular bestselling series of books. Reworked into the series of books published by Harper Collins places his gay characters within a large framework of humanity, creating a social history of San Francisco during the tumultuous decades of the 1970s and 1980s. Maupin is compared to the Charles Dickens of San Francisco. Like Dickens’s London, Maupin’s San Francisco is populated by all sorts and conditions of humankind: waifs and scoundrels, high-society hypocrites and burghers complacent in their middle-class ways, and at the center, a group of earnest seekers after a happy life.
May 14
1883 – One of America’s foremost female impersonator is born as Julian Eltinge in Newtonville, Massachusetts. Eltinge was a stage and silent film star with few realizing he was actually a man until So popular was he that during the Korean War a troop ship was named in his, or rather, her honor.
1974 – Long before ENDA (The Employment Non-Discrimination Act) is introduced in 1991, the first federal gay rights bill is introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 but fails to pass. The Equality Act of 1974. Introduced by Bella Abzug and ironically Ed Koch the sweeping federal bill would have banned discrimination against lesbians, gay men, unmarried persons and women in employment, housing and public accommodations. Abzug and Koch’s bill stands as the first-ever national legislative proposal to end discrimination against lesbians and gay men.
40 years later and we are still waiting……….
1981 – The Reagan administration cancels the White House subscription to The Advocate.
2002 – On the ABC primetime news program Primetime Live, Rosie O’Donnell officially comes out in order to offer support to a gay male couple trying to adopt in Florida
May 15
356 BC – Alexander the Great is born in Macedonia. One of the greatest conquering generals of all time, Alexander’s love of Hephaistion, before and during a marriage, is well accepted as factual history. Upon Hephaistion’s death in battle, Alexander wept for days and provided him a funeral normally afforded kings.
1897 – The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, (Wissenschaftlich-Humanitres Komitee) was founded by Dr Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin, Germany to campaign for social recognition of homosexual, bisexual and transgender men and women, and against their legal persecution. The committee was dissolved in 1933 when the Nazis destroyed the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin where the WhK was based.
1977 – CBS’ 60 Minutes broadcasts a segment on child pornography, concentrating on “adult homosexuals who prey on small boys.” As a result teenagers from a conservative New York Catholic high school go on a gay bashing spree, beating one victim to death. They are later sentenced to 35 and 40 years in prison.
May 16
1921 – Patrick Dennis (pseudonym of Edward Everett Tanner) , the writer who created Auntie Mame was born in Chicago. A bisexual man, he is the only author to have had three novels on the New York Times best-seller list at the same time. Auntie Mame‘s first edition spent 112 weeks on the bestseller list, selling more than 2,000,000 copies in five different languages. The manuscript was turned down by fifteen publishers before being accepted by the Vanguard Press
May 17
1866 – Composer Erik Satie is born in Honfleur, Calvados. Throughout his life he lived in a small Paris room. Dissatisfied with his compositions, he returned to school when he was forty to study music formally. Satie, a contemporary of Ravel & Debussy collaborated with Jean Cocteau to create the ballet Parade (1917) and left a remarkable set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications, from the Dada 391 to the American culture chronicle). Still today his untutored works are among his most popular.
1972 – John Waters’ outrageous movie Pink Flamingos opens in theaters and introduces the world to Divine (Harris Glenn Milstead). When the film was initially released, it caused a huge degree of controversy due to the wide range of “perverse” acts performed in explicit detail. It has since become one of the most notorious films ever made and is rated as #29 on the list of 50 Films to See Before You Die
The upcoming 27th installment of CBS’s fading hit reality show Survivor returns next month and as per usual to try to keep the franchise alive it will bring a new twist, the castaways will consist of ten returning players each competing against their very own loved ones. (YAWN)
Unfortunately Survivor and its casting agents (which must be the same as Big Bother’s) have decided that one of the returning players and his “fiance” will be the infamous Colton Cumbie, the gay, racist, and elitist Republican bully of last year’s Survivor: One World.
“Dammit I’m Cumbie” has the maturity of an unfertilized egg and on his first stint on Survivor convinced his tribe to give up their immunity idol so that he could vote out fellow black tribemate Bill whom Cumbie called “ghetto trash” and told the African-American stand-up comic to “get a real job” before listing all the Black people he interacts with in his everyday life including his housekeeper. But it far from ends there. Cumbie racist and insensitive comments continued throughout his time on the show at one point calling a little person contestant (Lief) a “munchkin,” and bullying another contestant and telling her to “jump in the fire”
It not only amazes me but in my opinion it is and afront to the LGBT community especially at this time in our fight for full civil rights that CBS and Survivor deem it fit to bring Cumbie back as a contestant this season especially since here have been many lesbian and gay contestants on Survivor with a much more positive images including Rafe Judkins, Spencer Duhm, Todd Herzog, J.P. Calderon, Ami Cusack, and Scout Cloud Lee to name a few. But like this years casting of Big Brother CBS will once again be using racism and intolerance to get ratings at the LGBT community’s expense.
The casting agents for CBS’s Big Brother 15 have scraped the absolute bottom of the barrel and should be fired for filling the Big Brother house this season with the most racist, sexist, homophobic and obnoxious group of “mactors” to date.
The comments captured on the live feed will probably never see the light of day thanks to sanitized editing by CBS. Executive producer Allison Grodner has explained why the CBS show ignores awfulness from the house guests: “We really don’t want to put hateful things out there in our edits.” Grodner said.
Here are examples, compiled and expanded from the above sources, video clips, and other sources:
GinaMarie said that, because of her income level, she receives “nigger insurance” (she whispered the n-word, so it’s possible she said the version that ends with “a”). She whispered it to both Nick and Andy, neither of whom challenged her.
GinaMarie said Helen, who’s Asian, “should be kissing our ass and serving us some fucking rice.”
Aaryn said of Andy, “No one’s gonna vote for whoever that queer puts up.” She also suggested he’d win MVP because “people love the queers.”
Aaryn said about Candice, who’s black, “be careful what you say in the dark; you might not be able to see that bitch.” (A month ago, Aaryn tweeted, “Attractiveness comes from inside. What would you look like if your looks mirrored your words and actions?” So much irony.)
GinaMarie said Candice “gets that fuckin’ blackness,” referring to Candice’s reaction to something that happened in the game.
Aaryn said of Helen, “Shut up. Go make some fucking rice.”
Talking about sheets that smelled bad, David said they were that way because “black Candice” was on them, and then admitted, “that was totally racist.”
Jeremy, who calls the house’s women “bitches,” said of Katilin, “I did touch her vagina today.. she didn’t act like she was happy.. I like to feel around see what’s she’s working with.. see if it’s a nice meat wallet … I know she’s on her period.”
Spencer called Andy “Kermit the fag”; Amanda called Andy “Faggoty Ann” (McCrae later called her out for that language, but she defended it).
Spencer said that the medical torture conducted by Nazi doctors was beneficial and praised Hitler’s speaking abilities, even while acknowledging that he’d be criticized for that.
Katilin said she likes gay people but they’re “untrustworthy in a game like this.”
McCrae said, “If I’m talking to a girl, that probably means I don’t want to fuck her.”
Spencer referred to women as “cunts.”
GinaMarie said, “you know two blacks stick together. They’re like tokens.”
Nice going CBS. Whats next Klansmen
The ironic thing is how the UK versions of the show handles these sorts of things…if someone says something that someone else in the house might possibly construe as hateful, racist, bullying, homophobic, etc, Big Brother calls them into the diary room, reads them back verbatim what they said, reminds them of the house rules on hateful speech, gives them a warning and says that if this sort of behavior is repeated, it’s grounds for immediate eviction. And asks them if they understand why this is being done
And then they air the entire hand-slapping process.
But obviously this isn’t UK television because our versions of UK shows as proven by Big Brother usually suck.
Freedom to Marry’s Evan Wolfson, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, Daily Beast journalist David Frum, and Alliance Defending Freedom’s Austin Nimocks participated in a roundtable this morning on Face the Nation to discuss the upcoming arguments at the Supreme Court and the rising support for marriage equality in the nation
Said Wolfson to Perkins:
“Marriage is not defined by who is denied it. When gay people share in the freedom to marry, it doesn’t change your marriage, it doesn’t change Tony Perkins’ marriage. My marriage is my marriage. And it means that I’m able to share in the same aspirations of commitment and love and support and dedication and connectedness, and that my parents are able to dance at our wedding. And our familiy and friends are able to support and celebrate and hold us accountable for the commitment we’ve made to one another. That takes nothing away from anyone else…
…The gay people are not going to use up all the marriage licenses when we enter marriage. And this is not just somebody saying it. We now have nine states including the District of Columbia, fourteen countries on four continents in which gay people share in the freedom to marry and the result is families are helped and no one is hurt.”
It’s an interesting segment, even though Bob Schieffer is obviously cluessless on the subject of same sex marriage.
But the question remains WHY does CBS invite Tony Perkins the leader of an officially identified hate groupon Face the Nation and give him credibility on broadcast television.
Face the Nation and CBS should be ashamed of themselves.
This past week’s episode of Criminal Minds, the long running CBS crime show featured a storyline about a killer who was forced to undergo abusive “ex-gay conversion therapy.” and in doing so has exposed the dangerous crackpot therapy to its 10.6 million viewers
Hate group leaders such as Linda Harvey of Mission America. Mat Staver of the currently under Federal RICO investigation Liberty Counsel and the “Queen” of self loathing “ex-gay” crackpots Greg Quinlan the President of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays) are simply irate that CBS has exposed the harmful and abusive therapy to millions of Americans are crying, gnashing thier teeth and sttamping thier hateful little feet.
GREG QUINLAN – President of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays)
They are so afraid of people discovering their sexuality and realizing that no one is born a homosexual and learning that they can actually change if they want to it is for this reason that they preach against us with such hate and venom, attacking us for exercising our right of self-determination.
It is obvious that the ex-gay movement has become such a threat to the homosexual agenda that their allies in the media and entertainment industry now feel they have to work so diligently to discredit us,” said Quinlan. “Why is this so high on their agenda? Is CBS now so desperate to try to get any kind of market share in primetime that they have to go this route?
MAT STAVER – Liberty Counsel:
“It is shocking that they would be so blatant and so insensitive to simply disregard the reality of what takes place during this change therapy. [snip] “It’s no different from marriage therapy. It all revolves around talking and listening to the client while trying to find out what their objectives and goals are. The client has the right to set their own counseling objectives and the counselor attempts to help them reach those objectives. It’s the same type of counseling a person would receive if they were struggling with infidelity or depression because they had just lost their job or lost a loved one.”
LINDA HARVEY – Mission America:
“There is absolutely no evidence behind the premise of the show. It is total and complete propaganda. Not only is it discriminating against these individuals, they slam everyone who is attempting to overcome these feelings even though there is no evidence that these feelings are inborn and say your opinions on the issue don’t matter.
The homosexual lobby and its supporters are now deciding there is a desperate need to discredit people who want to partake in conversion therapy. It’s beyond jaw-dropping how full of lies this episode is. It is harmful, insulting and people need to call the network demanding an apology to the Christian community and all of the ex-homosexuals out of there who’ve successfully left this lifestyle. If they’re going to do a show on this, they need to also do a show on the harm done by groups like PFLAG and others who were pushing children into the homosexual lifestyle”
