This day always reminds me of the American Playhouse presentation of The Fifth of July by Lanford Wilson, which aired on PBS in 1982. I was 16, and I had known I was gay for five years at that point, but I still hadn’t told a soul. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully explain what carrying around that secret did to me for so long when I was so young. It has had a profound impact on my self-esteem and my ability to trust.
Rarely did I hear gay men spoken about or see gay men depicted in a positive way. The culture was harshly and pervasively homophobic, so I heard about the faggots and the queers every day, but hardly anything affirming. Then I saw this play.
Richard Thomas played the lead character. I had grown up with the Waltons, so it was a shock to see him play a gay man, a pleasant shock. Jeff Daniels played his lover. Jeff was about 26 at the time, and he was cute as a puppy. Teenage Gary was smitten.
On those occasions when gay people popped up on TV shows or in movies, they were almost universally sad, lonely or even depraved. They were to be pitied or feared, and their sexuality was tragic. But the fact that both Kenneth and Jed were men was incidental. They had their problems, of course, but being gay wasn’t a problem. It was just part of who they were. Their relationship was a good thing, something they both needed and wanted. Their friends and family supported them.
I’m grateful to everyone involved in the production of this play.
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