'All the Fay' Was the First Show to Take on Gay Reprentatn

Contents:

• ‘ALL THE FAY’: INSI THE EARLY EPISO THAT CHALLENGED ARCHIE BUNKER’S VIEW OF GAY PEOPLE
• 10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS
• BOYS THE SAND: THE GREATT MOMENT OF GAY VISIBILY EVER
• DOCUMENTARY SERI ABOUT 1971 EXAM EXPLOSIVE FLUENCE OF JOHN LENNON, TA TURNER, MARV GAYE AND MORE — ON MIC AND THE WORLD
• A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
• JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY
• JAM BIDGOOD, A MASTER OF GAY PHOTOGRAPHY, DI AT 88
• 10 GREAT GAY ROMANCE FILMS

‘ALL THE FAY’: INSI THE EARLY EPISO THAT CHALLENGED ARCHIE BUNKER’S VIEW OF GAY PEOPLE

One example is episo five, “Judgg Books by Covers, ” which prented an unexpected take on the subject of homosexualy — at a time that nobody was alg wh .

The All the Fay wiki offers up this plot scriptn: “Archie thks he knows a homosexual when he se one and when Mike v his flamboyant photographer iend Roger (Anthony Geary) to the Bunker hoehold, Archie tomatilly assum that Mike’s iend is a “flamer. ” Retreatg to the safety of Kelcy’s Bar, Archie choos to spend time wh his “he-man” pals, notably his old arm-wrtlg crony Steve (Philip Carey), who, when hearg about Roger, reveals himself to be gay — which Archie never spected. Televisn historian and thor Jim Colucci, who is currently -wrg wh Norman Lear a 50th-anniversary book voted to All the Fay, ments, “This was a brand new show g blazg out of the gate, bee if they were gog to tackle touchy issu 1971, gay reprentatn was certaly among the touchit.

Jim mentns that when he wrote his book Goln Girls Forever, he mented that the first regular gay character on televisn was the short-lived s The Corner Bar, which aired 1972.

10 GREAT BRISH GAY FILMS

Gay liberatn and Stonewall had been 1969, so certaly was somethg the world was talkg about. And the gay muny had started to fd s very nascent voice, but wasn’t beg reprented mastream media and certaly not on televisn.

BOYS THE SAND: THE GREATT MOMENT OF GAY VISIBILY EVER

“Not only did they have gay reprentatn, but they also were breakg the harmful stereotyp that were the only thg that day and age people knew about gay people. In 1971 people probably thought all gay people were ty, feme, limp-wristed men wh lisps — jt all the stereotyp.

DOCUMENTARY SERI ABOUT 1971 EXAM EXPLOSIVE FLUENCE OF JOHN LENNON, TA TURNER, MARV GAYE AND MORE — ON MIC AND THE WORLD

While any stereotype has some tth, what the episo took pas to show is that never tells you whether Roger, Mike’s iend who wears the ast and is very boistero, and ee talks wh his hands, is gay or not.

But what do show is that the macho man, the nfirmed bachelor who’s an arm wrtler and big and beefy, and a former play player, whom Archie idoliz and hangs out wh the bar all the time, has been gay all the years. “So there was jt so much that the show did, ” Jim pots out, “to give reprentatn to a gay character, which would have been ground breakg enough, but also showed multi-dimensns to what beg gay meant. Weekend (2011)Few untri n rival the UK when to makg great and diverse gay films.

This may e as a surprise om a untry where male homosexualy was illegal until as recently as 1967, and where gay marriage ntu to ffle right-wgers, swivel-eyed or otherwise. Yet spe their often taboo nature, films wh gay characters have been around sce the silent era.

A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

So what key Brish gay films are out there? We’ve narrowed down the list to films easily available on DVD, although honourable mentn mt go to the über-rare Two Gentlemen Sharg (1969), a swgg slice of the 60s that hted at terracial homosexualy. Sign up to BFI Flare emailsGet the latt #BFIFlare news and ticket release list should really be a Top 11 – the omissn of Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), the first Brish film to feature a gay kiss, is borrle excable.

Tom Shkolnik’s betifully observed The Comedian (2012), which a possibly gay, possibly bi thirtysomethg (Edward Hogg) tri to make as a standup the pal, also narrowly missed cln.

Borrle (1930)What’s the gayt Brish silent?

JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY

A few d homosexuals n be found  Aled Hchck’s early work (check out the swishy drsmaker 1925’s The Pleasure Garn), while Ivor Novello’s films play up the flamboyant star’s androgyny, playg very odd, allegedly heterosexual men  The Lodger (1926) and The Man whout Dire (1923). But gayt of all remas Borrle, a hotbed of sexual passns set around an terracial love triangle. The ma tr may be straight, but the mera’s love of Pl Robon’s torso – the film was directed and produced by gay men – hts at an even more taboo love story.

JAM BIDGOOD, A MASTER OF GAY PHOTOGRAPHY, DI AT 88

One of the first spottgs of the GBF (Gay Bt Friend), a creature maligned and adored equal measure. Although ma at a time when homosexualy was unmentnable on screen, Hale’s gtur and waspish livery clearly the character as not the marryg kd. Victim (1961)Dirk Bogar, an actor who never acknowledged the mours of his homosexualy durg his lifetime, took a real reer risk playg a lawyer who, followg a strg of blackmail attempts agast gay men, begs to realise his own sexualy.

10 GREAT GAY ROMANCE FILMS

Ma when gay sex was illegal the UK, uld have been a reer-er, but stead saw him progrs om matee idol rol to meatier arthoe fare. Victim was released four years after the publitn of the Wolfenn report, a paper which remend that male homosexualy no longer be regard as a crimal offence. It took another 10 years before partial crimalisatn took effect wh the Sexual Offenc act 1967, which allowed homosexual acts, private, between two men over the age of 21 – many feel Basil Dearn’s film helped liberalise attus and pave the way towards tolerance towards gay people.