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The Homosexuals - Documentary CBS 1967

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Anthony Venn-Brown
 
Joined in 2005
May 10, 2010, 15:27

This 45 minute documentary is an amazing piece of archival footage was produced 2 years before the Stonewall Riots 1969 (birth of modern day gay rights movement) and 6 years before the American Psychiatric Association took homosexuality off the list of mental disorders in 1973. Here we get an in-depth look into the way things were….or have things really changed since 1967.




Anthony Venn-Brown
 
Joined in 2005
May 10, 2010, 15:29

Three discussion questions after showing the doco at our Sydney meeting were.

1. What was it about the documentary that made the biggest impression on you.

2. What do you see that has changed since 1967

3. What do you see that has remained the same since 1967


for the really keen…..here is a minute by minute description of the documentary.


• (00:12) Mike Wallace introduces the show. Wallace would a few years later become famous for being the first host of the long-running “CBS 60 Minutes” TV show.

• (01:01) Mike Wallace interviews Jack Nichols with the pseudonym “Warren Adkins” (See book by J. Louis Campbell, “Jack Nichols, Gay Pioneer: ‘Have You Heard My Message?'” Routledge, 2006, p. xv, 72, 99-101)

• (01:38) Mike Wallace says “Warren Adkins” is 28 years-old and an active member of the Mattachine Society.

• (03:09) Mike Wallace says 95 percent of homosexuals would not take a pill to become straight.

• (04:00) 27 year-old homosexual is interviewed by Mike Wallace in the shadows who had been jailed for homosexual behavior and was not in psychotherapy.

• (06:45) Most people favor punishment for private homosexual behavior. These sodomy laws were not overturned until a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

• (09:21) Gay bars are shown. Kinsey statistic of 1 in 25 being gay (4 percent) is quoted as meaning there are millions of homosexuals and they are growing in number according to Mike Wallace.

• (09:25) Dr. Charles Socarides says that “homosexuality is in fact a mental illness which has reached epidemic proportions.” This anti-gay doctor was still writing books about the sickness of homosexuality decades after it had been removed from the APA DSM. In the book by Charles Socarides, “Homosexuality: a freedom too far : a psychoanalyst answers 1000 questions about causes and cure and the impact of the gay rights movement on American society,” Adam Margrave Books, 1995 he admits to having been tempted to have gay sex as a young man. (See p. 251 “I was as horny back then as any young man of 18…” and “trying in vain” to get a girl. “What if I’d taken the easy road to orgastic relief — acceded to the suggestion of my gay tutor that I try anal or oral sex with a male classmate?” (p. 251, see Google book search))

• (09:55) Dr. Charles Socarides is shown instructing an Albert Einstein School of Medicine class for psychiatrists that homosexuality is not genetic, not due to hormones, but is believed to be learned in the first three years of life.

• (10:20) “Are there any happy homosexuals?” The answer is no according to the “experts.” The use of the term “happy homosexual” was parodied in the title of the ground breaking book by George Weinberg, “Society and the healthy homosexual,” St. Martin’s Press, 1972. (See previous post George Weinberg homophobia book 1972 (12/6/08))

• (12:20) “When is a non-homosexual particularly vulnerable to seduction by a homosexual?” Dr. Charles Socarides answers that “one can’t be seduced into becoming a homosexual” and it “develops due to early childhood fears.” This was a common psychoanalytical theory of homosexuality.

• (12:55) However, the weak can become homosexual according to doctors.

• (13:00) Mike Wallace says such views on homosexuality are not universally held.

• (13:25) It is stated that one-third of those who seek help can become heterosexual according to the study by N.Y. Medical College Dr. Irving Bieber (pronounced bee-ber).

• (13:55) Dr. Irving Bieber says the mother establishes a over close relationship with the son. The mother is over protective and over fearful of her son hurting himself. This isolates the boy from his peer group, which leads to homosexual development.

• (14:50 to 16:20) Dr. Irving Bieber goes on talking about the father being detached, etc.

• (16:30) Police are shown doing an undercover bust in a men’s room known as a “tearoom” where cruising for sex is done by homosexuals. A 19 year-old boy is entrapped by a cop he asked for oral sex. The boy heard pleading with the cops not to have his life ruined while noting his girlfriend was down at the beach and he was doing this just for “curiosity.” (See Laud Humphreys, “Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places,” 1970 and follow-up book Laud Humphreys, “Out of the Closets: The Sociology of Homosexual Liberation,” Prentice-Hall, 1972 and my previous posts Tearoom busts 1962 (2/16/08) and “The Boys of Boise” Sen. Larry Craig (2/19/08))

• (18:28 to 19:40) Police inspector James Fisk of the Los Angeles Police Department says they have arrested 3000 homosexuals since 1964 (to 1966). Mike Wallace shows the door of the gay group One, Inc. and Janus Society of America (Drum Magazine) while claiming that some gay groups agree with the police busts.

• (19:56) Hal Call, head of Mattachine Society in San Francisco, says “public sexual behavior” laws are OK along with prohibitions against forced sex or sex with the young, but “private consenting sexual behavior amongst adults” should be legal. Mike Wallace notes that only Illinois has legalized homosexual sexual behavior. (See the biography of homophile Mattachine pioneer Hal Call written by James Thomas Sears, “Behind the Mask of the Mattachine: The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation,” Haworth Press, 2006 and my previous post Randy Wicker vs. Mattachine 1958 (3/20/09))

• (21:28) Mike Wallace notes that public opinion is against making homosexual behavior legal.

• (21:40) Judge in Charlotte, North Carolina quotes doctors to say prison only boost homosexual tendencies and questions the reason homosexuals are sentenced to longer prison terms than murderers.

• (23:07) Mike Wallace talks about churches seeing homosexual behavior as a moral issue.

• (23:32) Father William Beer (sp?) gives the Catholic Church position that the homosexual act is sinful, but the tendency to homosexuality is blameless. The church has sympathy for those “handicapped in this way.”

• (24:35) First Methodist Rev. Robert Bruce Pierce confesses to having a homophobic reaction when meeting homosexuals that he has to professionally detach himself from to provide them help as a Christian. His “reaction is one of revulsion.”

• (25:33) The 1955 Boys Of Boise case is discussed. Mike Wallace explains that Boise, Idaho is a small town with a population of 34,000 and when it “tried to stamp out homosexuality, found it couldn’t be done.” In the “learning process everybody suffered.” A photo of the newspaper headline reads “Three Boise men admit sex charges, Trio confesses crimes involving 10 teenage boys” followed by an editorial the next day headlined, “Crush the monster.” The “year long investigation shook Boise to its foundation” according to Mike Wallace. (See previous post “The Boys of Boise” Sen. Larry Craig (2/19/08))

• (26:47) County prosecuting attorney Wayne Kidwell is described as having been 15 years-old when the 1955 incident occurred. Mike Wallace says he represents “a new generation” in 1967 that wants to still protect children, but thinks “another look” is needed at laws banning private sexual acts between consenting adults. Mike Wallace asks what he means by that and he replies it is “undesirable to make sex, per se, illegal.” The young prosecutor thinks the laws should make coercion and the unwillingness of one party instead of the sex itself.

• (28:25) Protest sign is shown “Homosexual Americans Want Their Civil Rights.” Protesters holding similar signs in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, (1966?) are shown by Mike Wallace who says they were “met with a degree of disbelief.”

• (29:00) Mattachine picket at the State Dept. Secretary Dean Rusk says flatly that State Department policy is “we do not employ homosexuals knowingly” due to our concern for the security of the U.S. The issue of homosexuals being blackmailed had been frequently raised in the 1950s by Sen. Joe McCarthy. The unstated assumption was that homosexual must keep their sexual orientation secret because otherwise, if homosexuals were allowed to be out, then blackmail would be impossible.

• (29:48) Dr. Frank Kameny of the Mattachine Society is shown. He had coached Jack Nichols for his interview with Mike Wallace to give short, clear answers. Kameny said “every American citizen has the right to be considered by his government based on his own individual merit.” Kameny saw no reason to penalize all homosexuals just because some were irresponsible as Sec. Dean Rusk thought. (See previous post Nichols, Kameny 1965 gay picket signs (8/23/08))

• (30:16) Kameny’s famous picketing of the White House is shown. Mike Wallace interviews a tourist from West Virginia watching the picketers and who says, “I’m a country boy. I guess because I couldn’t believe this. I didn’t know this was a problem over here.” He adds, “They’re advocating we don’t solve the problem. They are advocating we create the problem.” He thought help from a “mental health program” was needed and finished by saying once again, “I’m a poor country boy from West Virginia.” Ah, shucks!

• (31:03) Mike Wallace says their is discrimination against homosexuals in all fields, in all parts of the country, but believed that homosexuals were treated better in the creative arts. He asked two people to debate this point and address the idea there was a “homosexual Mafia in the arts” that biased things toward gay people. On one side was Prof. Albert Goldman of Columbia and on the other side was author and playwright Gore Vidal who was not publically known to be gay at that time. Goldman blamed homosexuals for distorting our cultural values. Vidal saw being homosexual a being natural. (See previous post William F. Buckley was so gay (3/14/08))

• (32:55 to 33:20) Goldman says inherent in homosexuals is exaggerated jealousy, rage and promiscuity. Homosexuals “can not have marriage” and “can not have children,” therefore “don’t have all the stabilizing influences.” I wonder what he would say to the present day solution of allowing gay marriage to provide these missing stabilizing influences? Same-sex marriage is a conservative idea.

• (34:35) Goldman says homosexual men have hostile feelings toward women and this is why fashion designers (who are presumably homosexuals) are trying to make women look like boys or sexually neutered. He blames the homosexuals in the fashion industry for destroying our culture.

• (35:20) Mike Wallace asks about the “homosexual Mafia” in the creative arts. Gore Vidal dismisses it as perhaps having some truth as do “most legends.” However, Vidal couldn’t see how it could exist. Goldman countered that no conspiracy between homosexuals was needed in the arts because clannish homosexuals would bias the creative arts in their favor.

• (36:25) Gore Vidal asserts that “the idea of marriage is obsolete in our society” and that “monogamy is unnatural.” This was the common view of liberals during the sexual revolution of the 1960s. As a result, early gay liberation leaders rejected the efforts of Jack Baker and Rev. Troy Perry to legalize same-sex marriage. Gay marriage was seen as aping oppressive heterosexual marriages.

• (37:50) Goldman blames homosexuals for our narcissistic culture that he says leads to a self-centered adolescent lifestyle. He notes 40 percent of marriages end in divorce because of this destruction of our culture by homosexuals.

• (39:22) Mike Wallace says “We end as we begin with a homosexual” who is also shown hidden in the shadows. Wallace says this homosexual is 31 years-old and a married father of two children. The homosexual says he got married out of fright and guilt. He thinks a love relationship with another man is “gay folklore” and not possible because the “gay crowd is so narcissistic they can’t establish a love relationship.” As a professor of psychology he had no doubt been taught this idea in school and looked for it in his life.

• (42:25) The homosexual laments that he is told by the medical profession that he is sick, told by the law he is a criminal, shunned by employers, rejected by heterosexual society, is incapable of a fulfilling relationship with a woman or for that matter a man, and “at the center of his life he remains anonymous” a displaced person, an outsider.


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