Early Gays on TV

There's a brief comment on your right about the passing of "Golden Girls" Bea Arthur, and how an episode about Dorothy's Lebanese--I mean Lesbian--friend affected me. It's got me thinking about gays on TV when I was growing up. Like most gay men over 35, I loved Jack Tripper on "Three's Company." Although he only pretended to be gay, he didn't do it with a limp wrist or by pretending to like men, he was just a normal guy who let the landlord think he was gay, so he could live with women. It was Mr. Roper and Mr. Furley who provided the laughs at his expense. Then there was "Soap." I was 6 when that show started, and although I knew it was an insult to be called a "fag," I never equated Billy Crystal's character with that word. He was the most normal person on the show, after all. It was the same with Steven on "Dynasty," my memories of him were that he was the nicest person on a show full of underhanded people. I couldn't understand what Blake was so upset about. I watched these shows with my mother, who has never said an unkind word about anyone. As for the men in my family, who were a little paranoid about me not liking sports, I had nothing in common with them and didn't care too much what they thought. I'm not saying I didn't hide my homosexual tendencies during my teens and that it was easy to accept myself after, but I do credit these shows for helping me not to hate who I was or hate others who were like me. I grew up respecting gay people, yet thinking I could choose not to act on my "sexual" feelings and would someday marry and raise a family, not because gay was bad but because I wanted a family and wanted to be like most other people. Thank you mom and TV for raising me to be tolerant of people's differences.