Know Your LGBT History - All in the Family and Beverly LaSalle

Folks have been asking for this episode, so now I am going to bring it.

As stated many times before, All in the Family was a groundbreaking situation comedy which dealt with modern issues, including gender roles, sexual harassment, rape, and racism.

But where it really broke ground was how it deal with the lgbtq community. I've already posted two episodes of All in the Family which dealt with the lgbtq community. But today's is probably the most popular - Archie The Hero.

In it, Archie Bunker, the main protagonist of the show - saves who he thinks is a woman. However, the woman turns out to be a female impersonator, Beverly LaSalle (portrayed excellently by the late Lori Shannon). The hijinks are hilarious:







Beverly LaSalle was a popular character who returned for two more episodes. In Beverly Rides Again, Archie elicits her help in pulling a prank. However, her last episode, Edith's Crisis of Faith, is the one many fans of All in the Family remember the most.

You see, Beverly is brutally murdered due to gay bashing and her death devastates Edith (Archie's wife who has become rather fond of her) so much that the woman loses her faith in God.

It was a truly sad episode and even though Edith regains her faith at the end, one still felt a serious loss at Beverly's death.

Past Know Your LGBT History posts:

'Santorum's homophobia gets him booed' and other Friday midday news briefs

Santorum Booed Again For Saying Gays Aren’t Entitled To Marriage Or Military Service - I swear what happened to the "good old days" when such blatant homophobia garnered one a standing ovation.

'HIV doesn't cause AIDS', says dangerous mythmaker who recently spoke alongside GOP presidential candidates - At this point, are we really surprised at the filth coming out of Bryan Fischer's mouth?

Chris Matthews And Robert Traynham, Gay Former Santorum Aide, Have Heated Clash - That an openly gay man would work for Santorum in the first place just boggles the mind.

NOM: Marriage Equality Will Create A “Moral Wasteland,” Normalize Pedophilia - NOM loves to stoke the pedophilia card.

Minnesota anti-gay group caught 'faking it'

An anti-marriage equality group in Minnesota has been using stock images instead of real Minnesotans to push the case against marriage equality.

From Think Progress:

Minnesotans United for All Families — a coalition opposing the state’s proposed anti-gay constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman — has discovered that proponents of inequality are having a hard time finding Minnesotans who oppose same-sex marriage. Yesterday, the anti-gay group released its first video of 2012, but rather than interviewing actual residents of the state, the commercial is “full of stock images“:

We tracked down the phony stock images of families that they used in their video, and we think you deserve to see the proof. Check them out:
1. Children Having Fun in Playground Together
2. Loving and Playful Family
3. Happy Bride and Groom Smiling Together
4. Happy, Smiling Family
5. A house, also found on a securities website
6. And last but not least, this couple, who are also prominently featured on a website for a hospital in India!

Check out the video:



Minnesotans for Marriage is no doubt following the lead of the organization it's teaming with to stop marriage equality in the state - the National Organization for Marriage.

In October of last year, Jeremy Hooper from the site Goodasyou.org caught the organization stealing photos from past Obama rallies and using them to boost the number of its followers.