We recently had Gay Pride Weekend or Gay Pride Week or something of the sort. Whatever they called it, that seemed like a good time to watch this interview Barbara Walters did with playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein back in 1983. I meant to post it then and plumb forgot.
1983 wasn't that long ago but it feels like ages since this was the way mainstream television talked about human beings who are drawn to other humans of the same gender. Ms. Walters' obsolete questions remind us how much some people didn't know about the topic just as some recent events remind us how much some still don't.
Fierstein was and is a pretty good spokesperson for his cause and his play, Torch Song Trilogy, did a lot to promote understanding. I remember seeing him do it at the old Huntington Hartford here in L.A. a few years after this interview. It was a very moving work, especially the third act. And I couldn't help but notice that the audience was full of older people who reacted exactly as they would have reacted to an equally-emotional piece of theater about heterosexuals.
That made me think I might indeed live to see a time of full acceptance of gays and gay rights. I must admit I did not think we'd get as far in that campaign as we have so far. There's still a long way to go and I suspect Trump will be responsible, directly or indirectly, for some setbacks but what has happened has happened sooner than I ever imagined. I think Mr. Fierstein's play and interviews like this one may have had a little to do with that, though not as much as old people dying off, young ones being tolerant of all kinds of differences, and some folks of all ages just plain coming to their senses…