alternatehistory.com

Inspired by the "No 'Hate that Hate Produced' documentary" thread.

The CBS Reports program "The Homosexuals" was highly controversial in it's time, and is now controversial for different reasons. In the 1960s, it was controversial for showcasing a way of life that disgusted most Americans to perhaps the degree pedophilia disgusts a modern person. It was something a highly censored era of television could barely allow, and which parents worried would be exposed to their children. Today it is controversial because it shows the idiocies of its era concerning views on sexual orientation and it presents homosexuals in a negative light and views them negatively (a mental illness, lonely people, etc).

To quote Mike Wallace's commentary:

The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested or capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of one–chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits. And even on the streets of the city — the pick-up, the one night stand, these are characteristics of the homosexual relationship.

There has been criticism that, being the first television coverage of homosexuality, it increased awareness about homosexuals but did so in a negative light which made those heterosexuals that saw it have a worse view of homosexuals and made those homosexuals that saw it feel worse about themselves. I'll quickly quote wikipedia: "In noting that approximately 20% of television viewers in the United States saw the program, LGBT activist Wayne Besen labels the broadcast "the single most destructive hour of antigay propaganda in our nation's history."[21] He says that "['The Homosexuals'] not only had a devastating effect on public opinion but also was a nuclear bomb dropped on the psyches of gay and lesbian Americans, who, prior to this show, had never been represented as a group on national television."[22]"

The CBS Reports episode can be found here. Please ignore the fact that it was uploaded by an anti-homosexual bigot.
http://vimeo.com/61123970

What if this CBS Reports episode never came to fruition, getting snuffed from the get go or being canned before ever making it to air (as was very possible)?
Top