Over the Rainbow: - Wrestling With Angels

newspapers across the country ran articles, often two or three pages in length, explaining gay
issues to the local public.
Television (Montgomery, 1989:chap. 5.)
A breakthrough for prime-time television occurred when That Certain Summer played on
ABC in November of 1972. The movie featured a divorced father whose son comes to stay with
him for the summer. The boy is shocked when he discovers that his father lives with his male
lover. Although the child is unable to accept his father’s lifestyle, the movie deals
sympathetically with what it means to be gay. It was acclaimed for its sensitive treatment of
the subject matter and did well in the ratings. Before the airing of this film, primetime
television had not dealt with homosexuality .
Three years after The Stonewall Riots representation on prime time TV became a critical
symbolic target for homosexual activists. They sought to gain influence over the way in which
they were portrayed. Although gays did not have the legal assistance or public sympathy that
minority or women advocacy groups received, they did have one important advantage. They
had what they referred to as ‘agents in place’. A substantial number of gay people, some in
high positions, worked in the television industry who were not open about their lifestyle. These
‘agents in place’ were able to leak information to gay activists, alerting them to upcoming
episodes in which gays were depicted negatively. Shortly after the airing of That Certain
Summer activist groups began to approach the networks to negotiate the way in which gays
were portrayed.
Ron Gold ,the media director of the New York based Gay Activist Alliance (GAA), wrote to
the standards and practices department of all three networks requesting meetings. Before the
meeting with ABC, an agent had supplied GAA members with an upcoming episode of Marcus
Welby, MD. where Welby advised a homosexual who was both a husband and a father to
suppress his homosexual desires. The meeting with ABC was both confrontational and hostile.
A meeting with twenty-five angry activists was not the kind of meeting that network executives
preferred to have with activist groups. Although the objectionable episode aired few days
later, it did impact later decisions. Gay activists were invited by ABC executives to comment
on any scripts dealing with homosexuality. Executives were hoping for either approval or minor
changes.
Over the Rainbow: The Gay Battle for Social Reorganization of America. 2010
Dr. M. L. Coppock
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