Kids the Hall Guys Talk Hollywood Homophobia and Gay Rights

Contents:

• HOW MANY OF THE KIDS THE HALL ARE GAY?
• BCE MCCULLOCH EXPLAS HOW 'THE KIDS IN THE HALL' KEPT THEIR GAY COMEDY EDGY IN THE 1980S
• COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’
• EARLY SIGNS TO TELL YOUR CHILD IS GAY

HOW MANY OF THE KIDS THE HALL ARE GAY?

How many of the Kids the Hall are gay? It was a time when homosexualy was much ls mastream than is today, but that didn't stop the edy seri om airg sketch that tackled gay humor head on. Durg a nversatn wh HuffPost Live's Ricky Caleri on Wednday, "Kids" star Bce McCulloch attributed the succs of those sketch largely to the terplay between gay -star Stt Thompson and his straight lleagu:Bee Stt was one of the first openly gay people on TV and was our troupe, I thk ma richer.

And also the fact that we weren't a gay edy troupe -- not that there would be anythg wrong wh beg a gay edy troupe -- but I love that here I am, a heterosexual man, drsg up, kissg Stt on the lips the mid '80s, and we're all dog , mak kd of richer. '" Though the world is more sensive about gay slurs today, McCulloch said the b still works.

Hilar and often challengg, their sketch and show, which ran on HBO and CBS om 1989 to 1995, were smartly wrten and alt wh a variety of then hot topics, homosexualy beg one particular. The st--Dave Foley, Bce McCulloch, Kev McDonald, Mark McKney and Stt Thompson--rned to perform at Ftival Supreme, Jack Black's edy the ndid terview wh The Hollywood Reporter, the troupe, which was disvered by Lorne Michaels 1987, touched on many topics, cludg the gay ntent of some of their Thompson, the group's only gay member, adms the sketch me out of "an agenda...

BCE MCCULLOCH EXPLAS HOW 'THE KIDS IN THE HALL' KEPT THEIR GAY COMEDY EDGY IN THE 1980S

I didn't realize how homophobic the world was.

Across eight episos, Dave Foley, Bce McCulloch, Kev McDonald, Mark McKney, and Stt Thompson skewer their sexagenarian stat, impole and evil Amazon money, ps and other hateful babi, gay culture, straight culture, cultural appropriatn, doomsday, and so much more that we jt had to rank every sgle sketch the revival.

COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Set 1975, “The Profsor” featur a gay uple a very sexy crisis. Gay in Buddy Cole tak center stage “The Last Gloryhole, ” Thompson’s sharp send-up of Toronto’s ndo circle jerk.

CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’

It was durg the years that they veloped many of their most popular characters, cludg Headcsher (a misanthrope who “csh people’s heads” wh his fgers), Cabbage Head (a misogynistic boor born wh bbage leav stead of hair), and Buddy Cole (a gay sociale who unapologetilly monologu about his sexual pas). It’s not jt that they haven’t missed a beat; they’ve managed to pull off the feat of ployg their shtick—the offbeat humor, the msy rage at nventnaly, the rigoro approach to sophomoric, goofy premis—agast the current culture whout necsarily updatg their worldview.

Of urse, ’s impossible to discs The Kids the Hall’s legacy whout highlightg Stt Thompson, the openly gay member of the group, who lent the seri a polil edge by boldly foregroundg his sexualy sketch. Thompson’s monologu as Buddy Cole not only embraced the character’s promiscuy, as well as his sual dg e and sobriety the face of wispread stigmatizatn, but also took shots at a homophobic society unfortable wh such displays.

Has a history of repeatedly sharg unfound nspiraci that man-ma chemils the environment uld be makg children gay or transgenr and g the femizatn of boys and masculizatn of girls. The basels claim that chemils – particularly tap water – uld turn people gay has gaed populary wh nspiracy theorists over the years, most memorably wh nservative rad host Alex Jon, who said chemils the water were “turng the igg’ ogs gay. ”Dannielle Owens-Reid and Krist Rso, -founrs of Everyone Is Gay and -thors of This Is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids, attribute lower g-out ag to the power of reprentatn.

EARLY SIGNS TO TELL YOUR CHILD IS GAY

The next generatn is growg up wh gay characters on their televisns, pansexual rappers on their playlists, and queer micro-muni on their Tumblr the change also means that there is a new generatn of fai scramblg to raise LGBT kids who have specific needs and challeng — kids who are growg up a society that, while creasgly LGBT-tolerant, is still plagued by hate crim, job discrimatn, and the more banal, everyday sort of homophobia borne by sual ignorance. “Beg gay was somethg I never really qutned, ” said Chloe Charbonne, a 12-year-old om Stockbridge, Massachetts. ”Like Kate Ree, Chloe spent early childhood sred and nfed about cshg on girls, pecially after beg lled an anti-gay slur for the first time the fourth gra.

“From then on, I pretend to like boys, bee I thought that [gay] was a wrong thg to be. They first intified as gay, then, a few months later, also began intifyg as genrls (as a rult, Chloe now prefers “they” and “them” pronouns). Amelia, a Midwtern mother of a 10-year-old boy who first began intifyg as gay when he was 7, said that her son’s unabashed outns tends to startle many adults who would rather not thk about children havg sexual sir.

“When they thk of gay people, they thk of sexually active people, ” she said. ”Amelia, through her blog and teractns wh the adults her gay son’s life, tri to battle this stigma.