"The History of Gay Hollywood" Transcript

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Over the last several years there have been demands for more LGBTQ represention in Hollywood movies. But something that many people don’t know is that the first movie to ever win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, was also the first major Hollywood film to show a gay kiss.

tradespeople that helped turn Hollywood from a backwater orange grove in California to the city in which thousands of young dreamers make their way each year in hopes of becoming a star. It’s a long story. And like most classic American tales… it actually doesn’t begin in America at all.

The love that dared not speak its name in America was surprisingly fluent when speaking German throughout the silent era of film. While America was using its new toy to glorify the Old West, recreating the fading dreams of its own mythology,

General American audiences though could easily see through the coding. However, it wasn’t long before the easily read coding... was forced to become almost, if not completely illegible.

In Hollywood's early years, homosexuality found its way on screen in ways both secret and obvious to the filmmakers behind the camera. Audiences rarely pushed back against these depictions, but those who did were loud, if not legion. Women's suffrage groups and the Catholic Church were the most dedicated to removing gay and lesbian content from Hollywood movies.

By December of that year 4,954 suspected homosexuals had been removed from employment in the federal government. The Lavender Scare was gripping Washington, and with the help of a future president, would soon dig its claws deep into Hollywood as well.

In the early 20th century, the United States experienced a period of political persecution and anxiety known as the "Red Scare". There were two different eras in American history that are collectively known as the Red Scare, both of which were marked by widespread anxiety over communism and other leftist ideas.

But even with deep deep coding... there was a catch anyone confirmed to be gay or even heavily coded to be... wouldn't have it easy. And to live a life true to themselves they might just have to die for it.

As the film industry moved away from suburban perfection, the extensive efforts made by Hollywood to conceal homosexuality in film during the post-war Lavender Scare era began to deteriorate. And then Hollywood came to realize that they were ignoring a large audience. No, not gays.

gay people to the attention of the general public, and then the gay inclusive x-rated Midnight Cowboy won the Oscar for Best Picture, the norms surrounding the depiction of gay characters in film began to disintegrate. Gay people could now exist in Hollywood. But for how long?

The Boys in the Band is a 1970 American film directed by William Friedkin of Exorcist fame, based on the 1968 Off-Broadway play of the same name by Mark Crowley. The film takes place in New York City in 1968, and follows a group of gay friends who gather for a birthday party.

But in that same summer... a rare cancer began appearing in gay men, followed by a cluster of pneumocystis pneumonia cases in San Francisco and New York. And then gay men across the world began dying. And suddenly Hollywood's opinion of us... didn't matter so much.