‘Golden Girls’ Writers Felt the Need to Stay in the Closet, Despite Show’s Massive Gay Following

No one cares. That was decades ago zzzz

“Getty was already deeply entrenched in the queer community”

The shit people think out loud these days…

And they dumped Coco after one episode!

They did have a few gay stories lines

Well the work place was definitely different back then no matter where you worked. And there was a lot of AIDS panic. I truly believe gays and lesbians only felt safe to be out at work in the past 15 years - a big shift happened around early 2010s.

There were always some exceptions but most gay people found it to be pragmatic to not be out. It really wasn't safe for your career.

…truly believe gays and lesbians only felt safe to be out at work in the past 15 years - a big shift happened around early 2010s….

Not my experience, nor of my closest friends, at all.

This was at the height of the AIDS panic era. Gays got shit on everywhere

Not everywhere. Don’t make up shit. Post hoc analysis —

R7 - AIDS was just the excuse for the 80s - it didn't stop in the 90s or 2000s. Being out at work was career-stopping for most people.

Bizzare —and not true.

I was fired from my supervisory job in 1985 because I was gay. The owner of the company hired a private investigator to follow my partner and me around the city for a week. He determined we were a couple. We had been seen entering a gay bar together.

I was given 15 minutes to clear out my things and was asked never to enter the building again. I was a good employee who spotted some issues to improve upon and I already had my Master's degree. It didn't matter. I was a sinner and had to go.

I later worked for a gay-owned company. It was the best job ever.

Bizarre —and sadly true.

R11, that’s horrible. Was it a small company? I hope the managers who did that died fiery deaths.

It was a national firm that specialized in corporate real estate, all over the country, R13.

R13 - they didn't need investigators - just a suspicion could get you fired or frozen out of any promotions.

In 2004, one of my co-workers said to me that if he found out anyone was gay, he would go out of his way to get them fired. I shared an office with him.

In 2010, I overheard my VP say (I was outside her office door) that she didn't want me to go to a certain event because we can't have a gay person representing the company. No - I'm not flaming and I wasn't out - but no presence of a girlfriend or wife after the age of 35 makes you sus.

I had a co-worker request a seating change because she saw another work had a photo of her and her girlfriend on her desk and she didn't want to look at it or be around a lesbian. She wouldn't go to the bathroom if the lesbian had also gone in.

I have tons and tons of stories like this. And I lived in the largest bluest cities in the US.

And, better for us and worse for you, that was not the reality for the great majority of gay men.

Well, they did hire a young Mario Lopez

It’s not a universal truth, as mileage varies.

The actress who played Yvonne totally clocked Bea Arthur as a lesbian when she couldn't stop staring at her tig ol bitties!

Jackee Harry said Bea had a young male lover living with her at the time of her passing.

She said a lot of things

I think you have it mixed up, R20. Jackie said that the actress who played Pearl on 227 had a young gay white guy taking care of her when she was dying.

No I don't. She starts with Bea at 5:37. She specifically states she had a young boyfriend.

Also states that Florence Henderson was still getting plowed at 80.

I stand corrected, R23

Great for you , R6. Your experiences, and that of your friends, don't apply to everyone. At all.

Maybe make a note of that? Condescending cunt.

But yours does—got it

In 2010 it was too dangerous to come out 🤣

I wish being in the closet would have been an option for me but I was visibly gay since I was a toddler . I was always out,because I could never be in !

I laugh at people who think it was only bad to be gay up until the 90s. People in the 2000s would rather their kid be in prison than be gay. Eminem helped usher in yet another era of homophobia. Republicans ran on homophobia under George Bush and California, yes, California, banned gay marriage in 2008. It was still a prison sentence to be gay in the US until 2003.

Utter nonsense.

Sadly so accurate

Florence Henderson always did look pretty plowable, even as she got older.

R32 = Barry Wiliams

I wonder what that rotten old cunt Frida Claxton would think of this.

Friday Claxton went on to live in the body of Bea Arthur.

Wow! I can't imagine how the gay crew members felt watching the gay-themed episodes.

Blanch's brother

Rose waiting for her AIDS test results after a transfusion

The cross-dressing political candidate

R11 I'm sorry you had to go through that. I suspect very few of us truly know why the caged bird sings, but I suspect you do.

And you survived.

[quote] No - I'm not flaming and I wasn't out - but no presence of a girlfriend or wife after the age of 35 makes you sus.

Please use the language of an adult and not silly adolescent vernacular. “Suspicious” or “suspect” works perfectly. “Sus” makes you sound uneducated and desperate.

Fuck off R38. No one asked you, gramps.

R36, the writers in question left after season one.

The reality is that there are people for whom coming out is dangerous today. People in conservative areas or industries where right wing Christians dominate everything, for example. People in conservative families, too. Laughing at this reality just shows your extreme ignorance and privilege.

R39 = “fire.” 🔥

🤣