After more than 40 years of what has become the “new gay movement” — a more aggressive style of gay activism after Stonewall — we can see the results, but what do you think has led to our success? It could be as simple as little Stewie on the animated TV show “Family Guy. ”
Here’s the skinny. Before 1969, our community was invisible. There was not one gay character, not one, not even a negative character, on network TV. The closest thing we had was Liberace who claimed to be non-gay, and Paul Lynd of “Hollywood Squares.” Both were stereotypes and deeply in the closet.
In newspapers, we seldom appeared unless a story could not be ignored, but it was always — let me repeat, always — negative. Shame on my fellow journalists who were certainly biased. The only stories were about suicides, arrests for molestation and raids on gay businesses. Only the negative.
Magazines did lifestyle features on closeted men and showed their beautifully appointed apartments — always with the line, “Where he entertains many beautiful women.”
This invisibility led to most people knowing little to nothing about us, save that we were deviants, immoral, psychotic … you get the idea. As a result, most gay people could not come out to family and friends.
Then came the fight to change media. I’m very proud that I was a pioneer in that effort. All of a sudden, we’re popping up on news and talk shows and features start appearing on the evening news. We were no longer invisible; instead, we had become an asterisk. But over time, and due to a growing community that had begun to understand the power of media, our presence grew.
In short order, here are some of the highlights of those historic changes. These appearances brought LGBT people into the living rooms of Americans. For the most part, it was the first time many Americans had ever seen a real live gay person.
1972-73: Campaign against the networks. This fight brought the first agreement by networks to change their policies. It also brought the first openly gay person to appear on national TV. It was yours truly and it was on the CBS “Evening News with Walter Cronkite.” Since there was no cable TV at the time, the show got a 60 share, meaning that 60 percent of Americans watching TV at that time saw that disruption.
1974: Phil Donahue interviews the first gay family on a syndicated talk show. Other TV talk shows followed Donahue’s lead and invited LGBT people on for discussions.
1977: “Soap” (ABC) had the first recurring gay character in TV history, played by Billy Crystal. Late in the series it became nothing but stereotype and, finally, for ratings, his character decided to become a woman — and he became a laughable character.
1981: “Dynasty” (ABC) has the first serious dramatic gay role, with the gay son of the patriot of the oil-rich family.
1985: Media watchdog GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, was founded.
1990: Fox premieres “In Living Color,” the nation’s first African-American sketch comedy show. The show often had gay characters, but almost always in a stereotyped role.
1991: “L.A. Law” has the first lesbian kiss on TV.
1997: Ellen DeGeneres’ character came out on her show, several months after DeGeneres’ came out publicly on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
1998: NBC broadcasts the first situation comedy revolving around gay characters, “Will and Grace.”
2002: Rosie O’Donnell comes out.
2005: America gets its own LGBT cable TV network, Logo TV.
At this point, TV networks began to regularly put gay and lesbian characters in their shows and this, along with the struggle for LGBT rights, brings LGBT people into the houses of everyday Americans. We are now being seen as who we really are (with some residual stereotyping). This creates discussion. Discussion brings education. Each year, the LGBT community grows and, every year, our appearance in the media becomes more prevalent.
Today, no one makes a fuss about gay characters. Here are what I believe to be the gayest shows on TV, in no particular order: “Glee,” “Modern Family,” “Brothers & Sisters” and two in the animated category: “Family Guy” and “South Park.” Runners-up are “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.”
Mark Segal is PGN publisher. He is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media, having most recently received the 2010 Columnist of the Year Award from the 2,000-member Suburban Newspapers of America. He can be reached at [email protected].