Good As You

J --

I think you mean "half a century", not "half a decade", or am I misreading something clever? Or, for those of us, like me, who are actually 40 now (and Stuart, the hubby, was born in 67 so is a month and a half younger than the OAD of "The Homosexuals"), "half a 4-score years"?

Also, do you know what the "Boise scandal" mentioned in the 2nd to last graf of the last news clipping? It doesn't ring a bell to me. Unless they're foreshadowing the Senator Craig situation? :-)

Oops! Thanks Lane. Fixed.

Back in the 50's there was a scandal that broke in Boise. A leading city business man (I forget his name), was outed by a rent boy who'd been tortured and beaten by the local police to name the homosexual.
After the man was questioned, and he was later put in prison, I think.
The local and national papers covered it as if a major Soviet spy plotting against 'freedom loving America' had been discovered and duly put away, instead of a man who had been a member of the local clubs, donated and participated in charitable events and was a doting husband and father, if he hadn't been a closet case.

The mayor had an openly homosexual brother, and the war veteran son of someone else in the town was also outed as homosexual.
The witch hunt eventually led to a suicide, but I don't know whose.

I saw a play about it called "Boise, USA" quite good and illuminating about how 'witch hunting' and human sacrifice are not a part of an archaic, barbaric past.
A great deal of the same goes on.

Sorry I can't give more details. You might be able to find the story on Wiki or Google.

Hey J-man, I have always been VERY disappointed by the FACT that Gay Pride or even Gay History has never been given an hour-long documentary, so far as I am aware... In fact, the History Channel has been suspiciously devoid of such a piece over the years (particularly during Pride Month!). However, sometime around last August (when I got my new and fab. new High Speed connection) I saw a Fora TV debate with, I *think*, that charming Evan Wolfson (I may be wrong) in which CBS (or perhaps ABC or NBC) will be broadcasting for, like, the first time EVER a full length documentary about Gay Pride and Gay History which is scheduled to air this Spring some time. haven't been able to find out anything about is, so...I thought I'd post what *I* have heard, and see if you or anyone else might have any secret sources with more in-put.

Still, should it come not to pass I will be even more disappointed, because there *HAS* been no prime-time Gay-related doc. on cable! WTF?! ;o)

Ya' know, I also wonder if their 1960s view that Gays were unable to form lasting relationships like married heteros. derived from chiefly white males who could not reconcile their own same-sex attractions in any other way but through sexual conquest rather than emotion?

I wasn't familiar with how Boise is apart of gay history and would love to read more.

Thank you Jeremy for posting this full CBS clip. I watched the entire episode. This was like time travel for me....

No wonder I had to waste nearly a decade of my life, 50-75,000.00 in therapy expenses, my happiness, wanting to end my life, practacing saying "I'm gay" in the car all alone... and effort to come to terms with the fact that I'm gay. Being born in 1970's in Indiana.... this was the environment.

Wow is it hard to articulate my thoughts (even to myself)... I can't believe that pain was still there.. I thought it was all gone...

Yeah, I'm speechless, alright... Speechless about WHY the Christians behave as if they are the only religion who matters as pertains to matters of individual and civil law?!

@ JB, bravo! You are more courageous than I could ever even hope to be.

I was only 10 or 11 when "The Homosexuals" aired, and never saw it. But I grew up to what the media had to say about us after that, including the much-ballyhooed no nothing book Everything You've Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, published in 1969, hateful articles from Time magazine over the years right up until it began changing its tune in 1979 ( http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101790423,00.html ), and the vile Gay Power, Gay Politics "documentary" which aired in 1980:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Power,_Gay_Politics

Forget the jerk at the end of this article who said there was anything of worth in the show: Gay Power, Gay Politics was a vicious smear of an entire group of people, especially those of us in San Francisco, and was aired very conveniently a few months before ballot initiatives repealing sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws came up for a vote in the nearby city of San Jose and Santa Clara county.

Anyway, it's worth seeing if you have the stomach for it.