Precisely the opposite take to mine. He was gay and accepted by Fred Rogers when that was rare. And Fred later expressed remorse at telling him it would be best not to come out. The word “shamed” in your comment is not remotely fair either
Fair. Shamed probably is the wrong word and I shouldn’t purport to know about what actually went down aside from a possibly misremembered documentary I watched once.
Yeah. It was something that deserves some critique, but I think ultimately at that point in history, sadly, Rogers was right. It wouldn’t have gone well, in the shortterm at least
My dad was alive at the time and rolled with the freak crowd (LGBT, hippies, what would one day be called punks, etc )when he heard about that story he immediately said it made sense because “there were all lot of people who already wanted to string him up for his skin color, let alone being gay” with this really serious look on his face
Yeah, you gotta remember it’s 60 years later and we’re only just starting to see LGBTQ+ representation in kids media, and even now it comes with significant pushback.
God that shit is dire. It was literally the best of two options and it was still bad. Coming out would have pit both of them in danger and got the show canceled. Fuck the 60s.
In any case, the cultural revolution that gave us many modern tolerances and freedoms started then. Currently the conservatives are pushing back hard against most of that. The culture wars today are a backlash against the spirit of the sixties.
Precisely the opposite take to mine. He was gay and accepted by Fred Rogers when that was rare. And Fred later expressed remorse at telling him it would be best not to come out. The word “shamed” in your comment is not remotely fair either
Fair. Shamed probably is the wrong word and I shouldn’t purport to know about what actually went down aside from a possibly misremembered documentary I watched once.
Yeah. It was something that deserves some critique, but I think ultimately at that point in history, sadly, Rogers was right. It wouldn’t have gone well, in the shortterm at least
My dad was alive at the time and rolled with the freak crowd (LGBT, hippies, what would one day be called punks, etc )when he heard about that story he immediately said it made sense because “there were all lot of people who already wanted to string him up for his skin color, let alone being gay” with this really serious look on his face
He grew up in California, too, so yeah
Yeah, you gotta remember it’s 60 years later and we’re only just starting to see LGBTQ+ representation in kids media, and even now it comes with significant pushback.
Yeah. Only looking back from today can it stand any criticism at all. But that’s easy for us to do now
God that shit is dire. It was literally the best of two options and it was still bad. Coming out would have pit both of them in danger and got the show canceled. Fuck the 60s.
Was this the 60s?
In any case, the cultural revolution that gave us many modern tolerances and freedoms started then. Currently the conservatives are pushing back hard against most of that. The culture wars today are a backlash against the spirit of the sixties.
Much respect for introspection 👍