Watch: 1967 Mike Wallace CBS News Story 'The Homosexuals'
An amazing CBS news clip here, a 1967 Mike Wallace report on "The Homosexuals".
"This much is certain. Male homosexuals in America number in the millions. And their number is growing. They are attracted mostly to the anonymity that a big city gives them. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco. The permissiveness and the variety of the city draw them. The average homosexual if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in or capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits, and even on the streets of the city. The one-night stand is a characteristic of the homosexual relationship...."
Watch (the whole thing really is a must-watch), AFTER THE JUMP...
The quote sounds like new marketing material for Manhunt.
Posted by: Jeff S | Feb 10, 2010 1:14:43 PM
The quote sound like a fund-raising letter from NOM. 43 years later and these anti-gay organizations are still spewing this crap.
Posted by: David in Houston | Feb 10, 2010 1:19:27 PM
The moral of the story is that "professional gays" should know better than assume that they can win referenda on marriage equality with a couple of months of lame ass, "please luv us" TV ads when we're really not just up against whatever's currently being voted on but decades of brainwashing of the nongay world.
In short, we're fucking bloody "guilty" until we prove ourselves "innocent" and hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to gay orgs have been pissed away failing to seriously try to do that.
Posted by: Michael | Feb 10, 2010 1:28:55 PM
Before he dies, Wallace should update this "report."
Posted by: jimmy | Feb 10, 2010 1:29:30 PM
I was all with the first guy up until "mixed race" and is that Truman Capote hiding behind those plants.
Posted by: Reese | Feb 10, 2010 1:35:05 PM
"The average homosexual if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in or capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits, and even on the streets of the city. The one-night stand is a characteristic of the homosexual relationship...."
Ahhh, progress! LOL!
Posted by: TANK | Feb 10, 2010 1:42:59 PM
I love how they refuse to link that fact that homosexuals are having multiple and fleeting relationships and that there is a law to punish them for anything more than that. It's hard to fall in love, move in with your partner, get married, raise a kid, and grow old together when you can be put in jail for it.
Posted by: Jacob | Feb 10, 2010 1:45:17 PM
It sounds like a National Geographic Special on "Orangutans of the Serengeti".
They talk about gay men as if they are space aliens or another species.
It's just SHOCKING that people who are denied any social or civil structure and support and who are harassed, oppressed and assaulted aren't living in structured, monogamous, long term family relationships like the people who are given all of these social and civil structures and support. Just SHOCKING!
Posted by: TampaZeke | Feb 10, 2010 1:47:09 PM
Sad to say, much is still the same
Posted by: NewEng | Feb 10, 2010 2:01:41 PM
Wait, I'm sorry, why on earth is this a must-see? I already know that people used to (and still do) think this way. Are there any crazy revelations in it?
Posted by: DonnyB | Feb 10, 2010 2:04:53 PM
Fascinating. Reminds me of how far we've come, and how far we need to go.
The inclusion of Charles Socarides is interesting, particularly considering that his gay son (Richard) was Clinton's GLBT advisor at the White House.
Posted by: The Milkman | Feb 10, 2010 2:06:24 PM
What a laughable quack that "psychologist" is. It's sad to think that his bigotry was cloaking itself with the mask of science.
Nowadays we point and laugh, but that's a room full of shrinks listening to him and taking notes (and then going out into the world and spread the nonsense).
This repulsive, shaming garbage should disgrace almost everyone attached to it.
Posted by: el camino | Feb 10, 2010 2:14:37 PM
Not sure what is more shameful - that this is his legacy or that he fathered and still acknowledges Fox News' Chris Wallace.
I say he ultimately is a failure that Mike Wallace.
Posted by: RJP3 | Feb 10, 2010 2:18:49 PM
The first speaker is Jack Nichols (his real name).
From his Wiki profile:
Nichols founded the Mattachine Society of Washington in 1961, and the Mattachine Society of Florida in 1965. The Mattachine Society of Washington was independent of the national Mattachine Society, with had formally disbanded a few months earlier. [1]
Beginning in 1963, he chaired the Mattachine Society of Washington's Committee on Religious Concerns, which later developed into the Washington Area Council on Religion and the Homosexual. This organization was pioneering in forging links between the gay rights movement and the National Council of Churches.[2]
Nichols led the first gay rights march on the White House, in April 1965,[3] and participated in the Annual Reminder pickets at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, held each July 4 from 1965 to 1969. He also successfully lobbied the American Psychiatric Association to rescind its definition of homosexuality as a form of mental illness.[3]
In 1969, after moving to New York City, Nichols and his partner Lige Clarke founded GAY, the first weekly newspaper for gay people in the US distributed on newsstands.
From February 1997, Nichols was Senior Editor at GayToday.com, an online newsmagazine. He died on May 2, 2005, of complications from cancer.
Posted by: patrick m | Feb 10, 2010 2:23:32 PM
I agree with Jimmy (Before he dies, Wallace should update this "report.")
It's about time STRAIGHT MEN come out of their deceptive closet. While I am sure there are monogamous-minded HET MEN, there are also a bazillion HET MEN who are lured into "monogamy" by their girlfriends/wives who insist on it, and these men cross their fingers behind their back and say "I do". What they really mean is they want their wives to be 100% monogamous while they live a double-life on craigslist or any of the other bazillion websites that allow them to use the gay community as their personal secret escort service. "Marriage" offers HET MEN a great cover for their promiscuous ways.
Posted by: John Bisceglia | Feb 10, 2010 2:29:44 PM
"This repulsive, shaming garbage should disgrace almost everyone attached to it. "
Agreed.
Posted by: The Milkman | Feb 10, 2010 2:29:50 PM
Well it's great that hetrosexuals don't meet up in clubs or have one night stands or migrate to cities whether for anonymity or variety.
....."he is not interested in or capable of a lasting relationship of a hetrosexual marriage...."
Yeah right !
And now I guess these wankers are complaining that we gays are too interested in the lasting relationship of a homosexual marriage.
Conclusion: there's no satisfying bigotry.
Posted by: JackFknTwist | Feb 10, 2010 2:34:47 PM
Thanks to Dave White at the Advocate for finding this
film and for sharing it.
Posted by: Inocentmi | Feb 10, 2010 2:43:24 PM
Now that time has passed and conditions have largely improved, much of the public still sees gays as summarized by the quote above. We're all in a PR war whether we want to be or not.
I personally believe everyone has the RIGHT to seek out casual sex to their heart's content, although I don't believe it good for emotional well-being in the long term. Our problem is not that Manhunt exists at all so much as the fact that Manhunt and its similar hookup sites are far easier to find and have considerably more users than full out gay DATING sites.
The hookup culture that was once a necessity is firmly rooted and certainly on display for any anti-gay groups. All somebody from NOM has to do is drop in, not on the casual encounters, but just the regular "dating" part of their local Craigslist page, for example. Chances are, only one or two of the dozens of listings will have anything to do with seeking an actual relationship. Chances are, the NOM or other anti-gay individual now has lots of choice quotes for future literature or speeches they can say even came from their local area!
A gay club or bar can act as a community center or a place to make new friends or even a new significant other, but all someone from the public has to do is take a look at the marketing for a given gay club and chances are it'll more closely resemble that of a stereotypical trucker's favorite strip club.
As I said before, I believe in people's right to casual sex. Heterosexuals certainly have it all the time. The difference is, it's invisible for them, but for us, it's the part of us that is most visible to the more conservative part of the public that isn't going to be "enlightened" through means such as gay characters in TV shows. Until the general public believes that the majority of us are capable of normal relationships, they're not going to see us differently. This PR war shouldn't be something we're having to do, but it is.
Posted by: Alex Rivlin at GayInAlabama.com | Feb 10, 2010 2:43:29 PM
@DonnyB
If your question is rhetorical, then you are being cynical. It is important to watch since it brings perspective on sociological evolution, and for the people who are not cynical, maybe even inspiration to keep pushing forward.
Posted by: Felix | Feb 10, 2010 2:53:41 PM
This "news" broadcast is legendary. I remember reading a lot about it, and its damaging impact, when I was young gay pup coming of age in the early 1980s.
Wikipedia has some good background on, including a bit of Mike Wallace's later comments/reactions to the piece.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Reports:_The_Homosexuals
Posted by: MrRoboto | Feb 10, 2010 2:58:55 PM
Can we go anywhere to see the Homosexuals in their natural setting still? As I understand it their natural habitat has been destroyed by Heterosexuals wanting to live there.
Posted by: Sargon Bighorn | Feb 10, 2010 3:01:27 PM
There are so many emotions that come into play when I watch this:
Funny: It's a hoot to hear Gore Vidal (!!!) talking about homosexual writers and refer to Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." (Albee was gay.)
Sad: That people would think that there are "no happy homosexuals," and that it's an illness to be cured.
Shocked: That there were people getting 5, 10, 20 years in prison at that time for being gay.
Not shocked: That the Catholic Church would call homosexuality a sin , while their priests were molesting hundreds of kids at this time.
Disappointed: That people were filled with "revulsion" at the thought of having any contact with a gay person.
Proud: That the world and people can evolve and change. That 40 years can make such an enormous difference.
Distracted: Isn't the first guy interviewed kind of cute?
Inside joke: Wouldn't this make a great film for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys to make fun of? Snarky comments almost write themselves.
Posted by: gr8guyca | Feb 10, 2010 3:03:59 PM
I appreciate the irony of Mike Wallace's pseudo-journalism appearing here just above a report about a philandering heterosexual politican.
Let's correct Mike's report a bit:
"The average politican, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in or capable of a lasting relationship. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits, and even on the streets of the city. The one-night stand is a characteristic of the politician's relationship...."
And if one google's "reporter + affair", you get 4,940,000 hits - indicating another possible revision to Mike's report:
"The average reporter, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in or capable of a lasting relationship. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits, and even on the streets of the city. The one-night stand is a characteristic of the reporter's relationship...."
All those seasons of Mary Tyler Moore, did Ted ever make an honest woman of Georgette?
Let's ban marriage for politicians and reporters (including anchors).
Posted by: David | Feb 10, 2010 3:11:00 PM
NOW I know why Divine wanted to go to Boise!
Posted by: macscruff | Feb 10, 2010 3:28:42 PM