Walter Cronkite died last week. I took it hard emotionally, and I couldn’t quite understand it. I realized Walter summarized a lot of who I am and what I have become. Let me try to explain and tell you about my friend Walter.
Most of you reading this think of me as a businessman or part of the establishment, but I never have thought of myself that way. I am, and always will be, a gay activist. The very start of this newspaper was an act of gay activism. But that is another story.
The “CBS Evening News” with Walter Cronkite was the most watched news show of its time. That time being 1973, when there were no 24/7 news channels; CNN wasn’t even born for another seven years. There weren’t even any cable channels — just three networks, and Cronkite was the diamond of newscasters, the most trusted man in America.
It has always been my belief that the way for our community to gain equal rights was for non-gays to simply get to know us. Basic education. In 1973, we were not on TV, we were not in movies. We were invisible. That allowed people to believe that gay people were immoral, psychotic lawbreakers and someone to toss out of your life. If you were gay, by law you could not even get a job as a trash collector in Los Angeles.
That is why we created The Gay Raiders. Our first objective was to give our community visibility, which at the time was not a popular idea in our community.
The networks and corporations laughed when we asked to meet with them. So that led us to civil disobedience. I disrupted so many live and taped shows that Variety called me a threat to the business. The final disruption was “CBS Evening News” with Walter Cronkite.
When I sat on Cronkite’s desk holding a gay-rights sign, about 60 percent of America was watching. For most, it was the first time they had seen a gay man. What followed surprised me: newspaper and magazine articles; I was invited on all the talk shows of the day (three times on “Phil Donahue,” who was the Oprah of the time); I was considered the nation’s most well-known radical gay activist.
A couple of years later, I was at an event that Cronkite was moderating. I hid in the wings but he saw me and walked over. Walter invited me to lunch the next time I was in New York. That started a 30-some-year friendship.
His generosity of accepting this radical as a friend changed my life. He became a mentor, and gave me advice about the paper you’re reading. He taped a segment for a benefit for the William Way LGBT Community Center and he wrote letters to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He even did an AIDS Awareness Day video.
What Walter taught me was that those willing to get to know us really can change the world. Walter did, and that’s the way it is.
Mark Segal is PGN publisher. He can be reached at [email protected] .