Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Know Your LGBT History

Friday, May 28, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family

It's been a good week in so many ways. Now I want to push an relaxing ease by not focusing on politics but another segment of Know Your LGBT History.

This week's segment was supposed to run last week but got pre-empted. It is an episode of the classic television show, All in the Family - the sitcom about bigoted New Yorker Archie Bunker, his lovable wife Edith, his daughter Gloria, and his liberal son-in-law Mike.

Through this mult-award winning show (one of the few which swept the Emmy categories by winning at different times Best Comedy Series, Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress in a Comedy Series), producer Norman Lear tackled controversial issues never before seen on television, such as the one in this episode, Judging Books By Covers.

Archie despises Mike and Gloria's friend Roger because he thinks Roger is gay. However, we learn that one of Archie's best buddies, former football player and uber-macho man Steve, is in fact gay.

I think Lear was trying to make a case here about using stereotypes to judge people. There was one facet of the episode that I didn't like, though. I think it was established that the character Roger was not gay, but what if he was?

What's wrong with an effeminate gay man?

One interesting note about this episode is that the late President Richard Nixon hated it. An added bonus after a video of the episode is a clip featuring Nixon talking about it. It's HIGHLY telling about Nixon's hypocrisy and his ignorance regarding history. To him, gay men are nasty but committing impeachable offenses are just peachy. Also, I'll have him to know that there were more gay Roman emperors than the last six.

Mercy we have come a long way:

And now, here's Nixon:

4 comments:

Bill S said...: Great episode featuring not one, but two noteworthy soap actors: Roger was played by Anthony Geary, who'd go on to play Luke Spencer on "General Hospital", and the late Philip Carey, who played Asa Buchanan on "One Life To Live".
The show did address effeminate gay men with a very likeable drag queen character, "Beverly LaSalle", who appeared in three episodes-most memorably one that touched on the subject of anti-gay hate crimes.
I saw this episode when it originally aired on Feb 9, 1971, a month before my 7th birthday. I didn't really understand the discussion of homosexuality at the time (by the time Beverly arrived, I did), but I was fascinated by that business with the chair and even tried it out. I remember talking about it in school too. It now seems odd that my folks let a seven year old watch what was, I suppose, a very grown-up show.; 3:19 PM
BlackTsunami said...: I was personally pissed about Beverly LaSalle's death and STILL am.

Sorry if I'm revealing a spoiler, but that murder pissed me off. But one good thing about it, that scene with Edith on the porch refusing to go to church still makes me cry.; 3:27 PM
Unknown said...: I seem to remember that there was another episode of All in the Family where Archie and Edith went to a funeral and found out that the women who had died had a female lover. All in the Family was the cutting edge of television in its day. Nearly everything else was sterile.; 10:56 AM
BlackTsunami said...: The Cousin Liz episode. One of the best, especially when Edith tells Archie that he isn't God and shouldn't be trying to proxy in his place.; 11:00 AM