Why Do Gays Love The Goln Girls? - The Stranger

Contents:

• BEA ARTHUR, BELOVED GAY IN, 1922-2009
• HOW BEA ARTHUR GAVE BACK TO THE GAYS WHO LOVED HER
• WAS BEA ARTHUR GAY? HER NET WORTH AND CSE OF DEATH
• WAS BEA ARTHUR GAY? WHAT WAS HER NET WORTH AND CSE OF DEATH?
• WHY DO GAYS LOVE THE GOLN GIRLS?

BEA ARTHUR, BELOVED GAY IN, 1922-2009

" Her rol as Yente Fiddler on the Roof, the outspoken M Fley of All the Fay and M, and most famoly, the tic Dorothy Zbornak of Goln Girls, gaed her an avid gay dience. Gays are postg this blasphemo Virg Dorothy mashup her holy memory:(Photo by AP/Wally Fong). The guts were by and large gay men — closeted, as most were back then — who were drawn to Arthur, like moths to a porch light.

“They were always exced to e to her hoe, ” says Matthew, now 55, of his mother’s many gay nfidant. Arthur, who died of ncer 2009 at age 86, occupi a sgular space amid the pantheon of gay ins: Neher preeng show diva nor pill-poppg wreck, she was stead a pillar of liberal-md fortu, always at the ready to do battle wh the Archie Bunkers of the world.

HOW BEA ARTHUR GAVE BACK TO THE GAYS WHO LOVED HER

All of this held nsirable sway over the emergg gay-rights movement.

Fully aware of the appeal she held over her gay fans, Arthur cid to give somethg back, and left an endowment to the Ali Forney Center, an anizatn for homels LGBT youth New York Cy. The mostly-gay crowd very nearly flew to a enzy, “phg toward her, grabbg at her, eager for face time wh the great legend.

) “It seemed like all her chari were mostly about nocents — eher kids or animals or gay or lbian teens, who have a bigger fight than anybody n image, ” Saks says.

WAS BEA ARTHUR GAY? HER NET WORTH AND CSE OF DEATH

Don’t let the gff fa fool you: Arthur was a softy through and through, as evinced by the Bea Arthur Rince for LGBT Youth — an honor, among gay ins, sure, but Saks puts thgs perspective. “The kids at the Ali Forney Center are lerally dumped by their fai bee of the fact that they are lbian, gay or transgenr…this anizatn really is savg liv. She had a long-lastg romantic volvement wh Adrienne Barbe, who played her -star M, and this, together wh her passnate support for gay rights, led to allegatns that she was lbian or homosexual.

Throughout her work, people have wonred about her personal life, cludg whether or not she is gay.

Q: Did Bea Arthur ever talk about beg gay public? She lent crence to the notn that women (really, everyone — Bea was a pneerg champn of gay rights and a legendary gay in) served the right to be not only fortable but betiful their own sk, too.

WAS BEA ARTHUR GAY? WHAT WAS HER NET WORTH AND CSE OF DEATH?

While Arthur worked ont of screens, Robert opted for a backstage Arthur was alive, she was known to throw parti her home, vg her gay fans who were barely out of the uple was married om 1947 to 1950, wh which they built their Hollywood reers to a standard. | Photo: Getty ImagVOICE FOR THE LGBTQ COMMUNITYWhen Arthur was alive, she was known to throw parti her home, vg her gay fans who were barely out of the closet. Matthew once relled that his mom's gay guts were always exced to go to their 2005, Arthur raised funds for the Ali Forney Center, an anizatn for homels LGBTQ youth.

If you were hangg out at a gay bar on a Saturday night 1986, you’d want to be sure you had a good seat before the clock rolled over to 9 pm. And yet was an stant h, particularly wh gay dienc.

Harris had a history of takg big bold swgs wh shows like Soap, which featured the first regular gay character on a succsful US s (played by Billy Crystal). But she’d also jt had a strg of flops, wh unmemorable shows like I’m a Big Girl Now wh Mart Short, and Hail to the Chief (which also featured a recurrg gay character). The show was pecially received by gay dienc, who may have been particularly fortable wh the st bee they had all worked on queer-iendly projects the past.

WHY DO GAYS LOVE THE GOLN GIRLS?

Bea Arthur, for example, had done two gay episos of the show M, cludg one which she fends a gay bar om homophobic prottors.