Sunday, March 14, 2010

Mike Wallace - "The Homosexuals" (1967)


I was an adolescent in 1967 when this documentary aired. This program represented the societal context with which I sought to form my sexual identity. That should explain a lot...


Mike Wallace later commented: "That is — God help us — what our understanding was of the homosexual lifestyle a mere twenty-five years ago because nobody was out of the closet and because that's what we heard from doctors — that's what Socarides told us, it was a matter of shame."


I am also quite amazed at Gore Vidal's revolutionary words in this interview. Remember, this was 1967 and Gore Vidal, though not the iconic curmudgeon he is today, was still firmly planted in the legit cultural firmament.


"We (Americans) have a sexual ethic that is the joke of the world...the U.S. is living out a mid nineteenth century Protestant dream of human behaviour - our basic values are all wrong, the idea of marriage is obsolete in our society..."


Is it just me or does he sound a lot like Trudeau?


Things were decidedly different in Canada. We decriminalized Homosexuality two years later.

It would take our country another generation to give gays equal rights in the bedrooms and the workplace.


How long will it take the great beacon of democracy to the south?

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