How Gay Bob, the World's First Openly Gay Doll, Came to Be

MEET GAY BOB, THE 1977 DOLL THAT URGED PEOPLE TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET

In 1977, the world's first gay doll was lnched. And to play wh him, you had to lerally take him out of his closet. * gay bob 1977 *

Jun 12, 2020Failed to save articlePlease try agaThis article is more than 3 years 1860s Germany, Karl Herich Ulrichs urged other gay people to publicly reveal their sexual orientatn. In 1914, Magn Hirschfeld wrote of the revolutnary potential of rpected gay women and men g out en masse. By the late 1960s, g out was treated wh the utmost importance wh the gay rights movement.

And 1977, Gay Bob arrived. It was the same year that Harvey Milk beme the first openly gay man elected to public office California. And while Milk was urgg his iends and muny to e out of the closet, the “World’s First Gay Doll” was dog the exact same thg.

WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?

The First Openly Gay Doll (for everyone) Was a Trailblazer Toy * gay bob 1977 *

An origal ad for the Gay Bob doll.

Digned to look like a batn of Pl Newman and Robert Redford and packed to his own rdboard closet, Gay Bob was the brachild of former advertisg executive Harvey Rosenberg. Rosenberg wanted Gay Bob to normalize the g out procs, while also actg as a fun accsory for those who were already out and proud.

In an terview to promote Gay Bob, Rosenberg once said, “Bob’s perfect for an executive’s sk, dash board ornament, the attache se, the bathtub rim, a health club gym bag. Dpe Gay Bob havg a realistic penis, the snazzy fashn talog ntaed the doll's packagg was distctly child-iendly:.

THE STORY BEHD GAY BOB, THE WORLD’S FIRST OUT-AND-PROUD DOLL

* gay bob 1977 *

Hi boys, girls and grownups, I’m Gay Bob, the world’s first gay doll.

Gay people are no different than straight people. But remember, if Gay Bob has the urage to e out of his closet, so n you! Dpe his optimistic msage, nservative groups of the era viewed Gay Bob as a threat to fay valu.

Edward Rowe, the executive director of Protect Ameri’s Children, was quoted a 1978 issue of the Ptsburgh Post-Gazette scribg Gay Bob as “another evince of the speratn the homosexual mpaign has reached s effort to put homosexual liftyle, which is a ath style, across to the Amerin people. I n only hope that the children who are given the Gay Bob dolls will not prehend the meang and tent of the mpaign. Attempts to get the doll to partment stor were largely a failure, so Rosenberg primarily sold Gay Bob via mail orr ads gay magaz.

1977 ORIGAL GAY BOB DOLL - RARE - ANATOMILLY RRECT

Two thoand people snapped up their own Gay Bobs the first two months of the doll beg available, and Bob was later stocked San Francis and New York boutiqu.

In addn to wng Esquire’s “Dub Achievement Award” 1978, Gay Bob got his very own storyle Frank Zappa's 9-mute o to sexual experimentatn, “Sy B. ” In the song, a robotic voice tells a human man: “I share this apartment wh a modified Gay Bob doll. Ever try oral sex wh a miature bberized homo-repli?

Today, Gay Bob is simply an amg quirk on the timele of LGBTQ+ history. At the time he was ma, tongue--cheek though he was, Bob was meant to crease the visibily of gay people everywhere. “We had somethg to learn om the gay movement, jt like we did om the Black civil rights movement and the women’s movement, ” Harvey Rosenberg once said.