What About Gay Bob? | Natural History Mm

Contents:

• WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?
• GAYBO
• GAY
• THE STORY BEHD GAY BOB, THE WORLD’S FIRST OUT-AND-PROUD DOLL
• DEFINITIONS FOR GAYBOGAY·BO
• IS BO BURNHAM GAY? ON “BEG STRAIGHT AS A RAMP”

WHAT ABOUT GAY BOB?

Thirteen ch tall and plastic, Gay Bob was marketed as the first openly gay doll and ma his retail but mail-orr talogs.

At face value, Gay Bob’s msage about the mers of g out seems earnt, pog the valu of urage, honty, and livg thentilly; however, the brandg and sign of the Gay Bob doll are brash.

Rosenberg put $10, 000 of his own money to gettg Gay Bob manufactured through his pany, Gizmo Development. We had somethg to learn om the gay movement, jt like we did om the black civil rights movement, and the women’s movement and that is havg the urage to stand up and say, ‘I have a right to be what I am.

GAYBO

While Rosenberg did not intify as gay, he stated that he had created the doll to liberate men om tradnal sexual rol. Acrdg to Rosenberg, regardls of a person’s sexualy, Gay Bob uld serve as an example for havg the urage to “e out of the closet” and be your te, thentic self. Durg a prs blz for the doll’s release, Rosenberg also dited that Gay Bob was a spoof of other “amorpho, sexls dolls, ” which was undoubtedly a reference to Mattel’s KenTM and BarbieTM.

He had plans to release addnal dolls that would have ma up the rt of Gay Bob’s fay (a mother, father, and two brothers); however, the other dolls were never produced. Gay Bob dolls were sold via mail-orr advertisements gay magaz and a few boutique shops New York Cy and San Francis. Consequently, ten thoand more dolls were produced, and Gay Bob was btowed wh Esquire magaze's "Dub Achievement Award" 1978.

GAY

A handsome and mascule doll, Gay Bob had a short feathery blon crew cut and was signed to look like a cross between Pl Newman and Robert Redford. He had a preprogrammed voice rerdg that played the earnt msage, “Gay people are no different than straight people… if everyone me ‘out of their closets, ’ there wouldn’t be so many angry, trated, ightened people. ” This reerated msagg om his fashn talog that fed “g out of the closet” as what uld be scribed as Gay Bob’s manifto—be urageo by g out of your closet and livg hontly, like Gay Bob!

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

But Gay Bob was more than jt clever packagg; he also promoted the ia that g out of the closet, beg open and hont wh the people your life, was a powerful and urageo act. “It’s a real giggle and kd of fun, ” said Bce Voeller, executive director of the Natnal Gay Task Force said at the time, “I thk we should al wh lightly and enjoy . Many nsir Stonewall, a New York Cy uprisg to prottg police harassment at the Stonewall Inn, as the start of the Gay Rights movement the Uned Stat.

Los Angel has a long history of Gay Rights Protts and anti-gay ordanc, such as the Anti-Masqueradg Ordance of 1898. The rtrictive anti-gay Hays Co, which forba and then limed the way LGBTQ+ characters uld be seen on film, was disband the early 1960s. Gay Rights and Gay Inty had entered more mon areas the cultural nversatn, but LGBTQ+ people were still discrimated agast, stigmatized, and legislated agast on large and small sl.

In 1977, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official California, and 1978 was assassated.

DEFINITIONS FOR GAYBOGAY·BO

At the same time Gay Bob h the mail-orr adult-centric talogs (and a uple of biastal boutique shelv) sger and anti-gay rights activist Ana Bryant found Save Our Children, Inc, which opposed the gay rights movement. When Da County, Florida, passed a gay-rights ordance protectg gay civil rights passed early 1977, Save Our Children rpond wh a mpaign to repeal the ordance. Bryant’s fear-mongerg rhetoric gaed tractn, and June 1977, the Da County gay rights ordance was repealed and would rema until the 1990s.

This lead to more gay rights protectns beg repealed and other loss to the LGBTQ+ muny across the untry. Rowe lled the Gay Bob dolls, “evince of the speratn of the homosexual mpaign has reached s effort to put the homosexual liftyle, which is a athstyle, 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 that is behd their manufacture and distributn. That changed 1997 wh Totem Internatnal’s troductn of the Billy doll who claimed to be the first “Out and Proud Gay Doll”—although that distctn clearly belongs to Gay Bob.

IS BO BURNHAM GAY? ON “BEG STRAIGHT AS A RAMP”

Like Gay Bob, Billy also me wh a fashn talogue, but he had a iend named Tyson, and a boyiend named Carlos. While Gay Bob was built for the adult dience, today, we see doll manufacturers bridge the LBGTQ+ muny wh tentnaly for the younger generatn.