Is Your Brother Gay?

Contents:

• THAT GAY EPISO: ‘MARY TYLER MOORE’ COM OUT OF THE CLOSET
• I'M GAY BUT I DIDN'T MOLT MY BROTHER
• HE A'T GAY, HE'S MY BROTHER
• IS YOUR BROTHER GAY?

THAT GAY EPISO: ‘MARY TYLER MOORE’ COM OUT OF THE CLOSET

Gay people worry about how they’re perceived — not for vany reasons, but survival reasons. The perd of a gay person’s life — be they mut, months or years — between acknowledgg their queer inty and proudly flyg a rabow flag are a nonstop ternal Q(ueer) & A ssn. ”Do they know I’m gay?

I'M GAY BUT I DIDN'T MOLT MY BROTHER

” “Wa, do this make me seem gay? ” “When do I tell them I’m gay? ” Unlike Cheers‘ “The Boys the Bar, ” which tackled machismo and gay panic by makg half the st straight-up homophob, “My Brother’s Keeper” saved s big gay reveal for the very end.

To get all meta, this is a gay episo that lerally plays straight for 24 of s 25 mut. To get even meta-ier, “My Brother’s Keeper” was wrten by Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon, a fely-not-married duo (Clair was most likely gay) that performed hband-and-wife edy rout on variety shows.

“My Brother’s Keeper” is also built around the dynamic between gay men and straight women. In the episo, which aired  MTM‘s third season  January 1973, Phyllis’ (Cloris Leachman) bachelor brother Ben Sutherland (Robert Moore) pays a vis for the first and — par for the urse for gay episos — only time. A Tony-nomated stage veteran, there’s no doubt Robert Moore ed his experience as a gay man to rm Ben’s character.

HE A'T GAY, HE'S MY BROTHER

It turns out that a vis om a quasi-closeted homosexual is jt what Mary Tyler Moore need to ntrast Phyllis and Rhoda. Y, is believable that the gay guy would h off wh the person that snaps to the beat of her own classil dmmer.

Like Ben, I spent years tellg close iends and, eventually, acquatanc and strangers about my gayns before I broached the topic wh my fay.

IS YOUR BROTHER GAY?

It was easier for me to troduce myself to new people as a gay man than acunt for the s of prumed straightns I had wh my fay.

Yeah, Rhoda’s le (“He’s gay! While this episo don’t h s msage as hard as Cheers‘ “Boys the Bar, ” ’s stealthily a more thentic pictn of gay issu. The episo was -wrten by a gay man and featured a gay actor — both of whom had their important creative voic silenced by AIDS-related illns the ’80s.

Wh “My Brother’s Keeper, ” Dick Clair, Jenna McMahon and Robert Moore livered a small peek to the daily anxieti of gay life — and 70s dienc didn’t see g.