WKRP in Cincinnati _ Les On A Ledge by hulu
As seen by this 1978 episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, members of the transgender community and the idea that someone would attempt suicide after being called gay were funny topics once upon a time without hardly any reprisal. Not so much today.
While we continue to do the work to gain equality, let's never forget how far we have come or where we have come from.
Past Know Your LGBT History posts:
Know Your LGBT History - Jeanne Manford and PFLAG
Know Your LGBT History - In-the-closet politicians and pastors
Know Your LGBT History - Tales from the Crypt - 'The Assassin'
Know Your LGBT History - Gays in Sports
Know Your LGBT History - Barney Frank
Know Your LGBT History - Roseanne
Know Your LGBT History - Ellen - 'The Puppy Episode'
Know Your LGBT History - World AIDS Day
Know Your LGBT History - The sad hysteria over the 'down low'
Know Your LGBT History - The Stonewall Riots of 1969
Know Your LGBT History - Trevor
Know Your LGBT History - Christine Jorgensen
Know Your LGBT History - Stephen Stucker
Know Your LGBT History - Coming Out
Know Your LGBT History - Prayers for Bobby
Know Your LGBT History - Roy Cohn
Know Your LGBT History - Gladys Bentley
Know Your LGBT History - Wanda Sykes
Know Your LGBT History - William 'Billy' Haines and Jimmy Shields
Know Your LGBT History - The Dynamic Superiors
Know Your LGBT History - Jack Fertig (Sister Boom Boom)
Know Your LGBT History - Bugs Bunny
Know Your LGBT History - The Jeffersons (a repeat)
Know Your LGBT History - Homoeroticism in Fright Night
Know Your LGBT History - New York passes marriage equality law
Know Your LGBT History - Leonard Matlovich
Know Your LGBT History - Liberace
Know Your LGBT History - A brief history of gay relationships
Know Your LGBT History - Bessie Smith
Know Your LGBT History - Josephine Baker
Know Your LGBT History - Clara Ward and Willie 'Little Axe' Broadnax
Know Your LGBT History - Venus Xtravaganza
Know Your LGBT History - LGBTs who are changing the world for the better
Know Your LGBT History - Danitra Vance
Know Your LGBT History - Oliver Sipple
Know Your LGBT History - Gay Rights, Special Rights
Know Your LGBT History - Alan Turing
Know Your LGBT History - Bayard Rustin
Know Your LGBT History - Billy Preston
Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester
Know Your LGBT History - Billy Tipton
Know Your LGBT History - Nell Carter
Know Your LGBT History - James Baldwin
Know Your LBGT History - Paul Winfield
Know Your LGBT History - Barbara Jordan
Know Your LGBT History - Michael Jeter
Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family and Beverly LaSalle
Know Your LGBT History - The Lion in Winter
Know Your LGBT History - Saturday Night Live and 'Schmitts Gay'
Know Your LGBT History - Brother to Brother
Know Your LGBT History - Shameless
Know Your LGBT History - Car Wash
Know Your LGBT History - The 37th anniversary of 'Flowers of Evil'
Know Your LGBT History - The Best Way To Walk
Know Your LGBT History - The Jackal
Know Your LGBT History - A Cage Without A Key
Know Your LGBT History - In & Out
Know Your LGBT History - 'The Fabulous Gays' of Steambath
Know Your LGBT History - Bound
Know Your LGBT History - Gay characters from children's television show and movies
Know Your LGBT History - Gay documentaries, past and present
Know Your LGBT History - The Hotel New Hampshire
Know Your LGBT History - The Crying Game
Know Your LGBT History - Set It Off
Know Your LGBT History - The Wedding Banquet
Know Your LGBT History - Bachelor Party
Know Your LGBT History - Starsky and Hutch
Know Your LGBT History - The Naked Civil Servant
Know your LGBT History - Partners
Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family: Cousin Liz
Know Your LGBT History - Rebecca
Know Your LGBT History - urban African-American movies
Know Your LGBT History - Charles Pierce
Know Your LGBT History - Torch Song Trilogy
The Best of Know Your LGBT History
Know Your LGBT History - Masters of Horror - Sick Girl
Know Your LGBT History - MadTV
Know Your LGBT History - Gimme A Break
Know Your LGBT History - Not Another Gay Movie
Know Your LGBT History - My Beautiful Laundrette
Know Your LGBT History - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Know Your LGBT History - I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Know Your LGBT History - The Gay Deceivers
Know Your LGBT History - Reflections in a Golden Eye
Know Your LGBT History - Dynasty
Know Your LGBT History - Milk
Know Your LGBT History - Black Shampoo
Know Your LGBT History - Never Too Young To Die
Know Your LGBT History - All About Eve
Know Your LGBT History - Hotel
Know Your LGBT History - The Streets of San Francisco
Know Your LGBT History - Two looks at transgender characters in films
Know Your LGBT History - Flawless
Know Your LGBT History - Mahogany
Know Your LGBT History - Beverly Hills Cop
Know Your LGBT History - Some Like It Hot
Know Your LGBT History - Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia
Know Your LGBT History - Dirty Laundry
Know Your LGBT History - The Willie Witch Project
Know Your LGBT History - Spartacus
Know Your LGBT History - Caged
Know Your LGBT History - The Birdcage
Know Your LGBT History - Maude
Know Your LGBT History - That Certain Summer
Know Your LGBT History - Boat Trip
Know Your LGBT History - Staircase
Know Your LGBT History - Beautiful Thing
Know Your LGBT History - Armed and Dangerous
Know Your LGBT History - The Proud Family
Know Your LGBT History - Suddenly Last Summer
Know Your LGBT History - Gay TV Now
Know Your LGBT History - Stewardess School
Know Your LGBT History - Up the Academy
Know Your LGBT History - Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
Know Your LGBT History - A Different Story
Know Your LGBT History - Victim
Know Your LGBT History - The Color Purple
Know Your LGBT History - Making Love
Know Your LGBT History - A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge
Know Your LGBT History - Noah's Arc
Know Your LGBT History - Adorable Adrian Adonis
Know Your LGBT History - The Night Strangler
Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family
Know Your LGBT History - Tongues Untied
Know Your LGBT History - The Celluloid Closet
Know Your LGBT History - Querelle
Know Your LGBT History - Theatre of Blood
Know Your LGBT History - Strange Fruit
Know Your LGBT History - Designing Women
Know Your LGBT History - The Children's Hour
Know Your LGBT History - Sylvester
Know Your LGBT History - Once Bitten
Know Your LGBT History - The Boys in the Band
Know Your LGBT History - Christopher Morley, the crossdressing assassin
Know Your LGBT History - Midnight Cowboy
Know Your LGBT History - Dracula's Daughter
Know Your LGBT History - Blacula
Know Your LGBT History - 3 Strikes
Know Your LGBT History - Paris Is Burning
Know Your LGBT History - The Women
Know your LGBT History - Soul Plane
Know Your LGBT History - The Player's Club
Special Know Your LGBT History - Fame
Know Your LGBT History - Welcome Home, Bobby
Know Your LGBT History - Barney Miller
Know your lgbt history - The Jerry Springer Show
Know your lgbt history - Martin Lawrence and that 'gay guy' on his show
Know your lgbt history - The Ricki Lake Show
Know your lgbt history - Which Way Is Up
Know your lgbt history - Gays in Primetime Soaps
Know your lgbt history - Boys Beware
Know your lgbt history - The Boondocks
Know your lgbt history - Mannequin
Know your lgbt history - The Warriors
Know Your LGBT History - New York Undercover
Know Your LGBT History - Low Down Dirty Shame
Know Your LGBT History - Fortune and Men's Eyes
Know your lgbt history - California Suite
Know your lgbt history - Taxi (Elaine's Strange Triangle)
Know your lgbt history - Come Back Charleston Blue
Know your lgbt history - James Bond goes gay
Know your lgbt history - Windows
Know your lgbt history - To Wong Foo and Priscilla
Know your lgbt history - Blazing Saddles
Know your lgbt history - Sanford and Son
Know your lgbt history - In Living Color
Know your lgbt history - Cleopatra Jones and her lesbian drug lords
Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?
Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street
Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys
Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy
Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George
Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda
'Know your lgbt history - Cruising
Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones
Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up
Know your lgbt history - Fright Night
Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil
The Jeffersons and the transgender community
3 comments:
This was, at the time, ground breaking.
Gay Power, Gay Politics, the hateful smear masquerading as a documentary about the gay community in San Francisco, is the single best example from that time of how far we've come since.
Gay Power, Gay Politics was bigoted and ugly, and CBS aired it just months before an election on sexual orientation anti-discrimination legislation in the nearby city of San Jose and Santa Clara county. (Both measures lost heavily.)
CBS totally got away with airing its propaganda. As far as I could tell, we were powerless to do anything about it.
At first, I used to think that WKRP was stupid and mindless. Then I got to watching it on late night reruns after work and realized there was something more. At least, I came to think there was something more going on. They touched on a lot of issues that other shows did not - I remember one where Herb had a drinking problem. By exaggerating the trans and homophobia for this episode, they helped point out how ridiculous - and at the same time, damaging - it was without making people too uncomfortable. And they were uncomfortable issues then, but by bringing them up, even in this format, they were at least shining light where a lot of people hadn't, or wouldn't, look. And they were not derisive of the issues, either.
For the time, it was ground-breaking.
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