“Not bad for a 40 year old dad of 5 who sits at a desk all week.”

Or how this person is homeless specifically because gentrifying transplants like this asshole took their housing.

This. I’m old enough to remember that until 1969, the men arrested in police nuisance raids of gay bars would have their names published in the daily newspaper, often resulting in losing jobs. Rogers wasn’t rejecting him - he was looking out for him (and the show). Also worth noting that the marriage-for-appearances…

Yes. I think middle-aged people (like me) may have a better perspective on what things were really like in the ’60s and ’70s. If it got out that a gay man was working on a children’s show, that would have been a huge scandal and there’s no doubt the show would have been shut down immediately. To Rogers, the show was a…

I agree that you can’t call this homophobia on Rogers part (imho). He didn’t reject Clemmons, quite the opposite. He did pragmatically admit the reality of the situation. If he kept going out to gay bars, he’d get outed and fired. That was the reality and completely out of Roger’s hands. The ending of the article in…

Yes, this exactly. I don’t see these “cracks”. Especially with this quote from Mr. Rogers about Clemmons, “Many of the wrong people will get the worst idea, and we don’t want them thinking and talking about you like that.” i.e., many folks would call Clemmons a pedophile just because he was gay. It really seems like…

Agreed. Par for the course at that time would have been to fire him. If Rogers were truly homophobic, he would have and no one would have batted an eye.

I have seen a couple of sites trying to make a fuss out of this and say that homophobia was some sort of skeleton in Fred Rogers’ closet. But that is really judging people of half a century ago by the morality of today. It is amazing that Clemmons wasn’t fired. Gay people (especially men) around children was regarded…

But still, it illustrates the finite nature of Mr. Rogers’s ideals. “I like you just the way you are,” he often said, but in the case of Clemmons there was a caveat: “...I just need you to show less of the way you are.” This information through the lens of contemporary culture, in which an employer legislating what…

Yeah, what I didn’t say but feel very deeply is that he would have done so many more good things for #MeToo, and that he won’t have the chance feels so terrible.

I appreciated how Bourdain evolved from the cheeky American asshole in Cook’s Tour to the more respectful “I want to be everyone’s friend” in No Reservations to the “food is just how I talk about the bigger stuff” guy in Parts Unknown. He cut down on the wisecracking (somewhat) and turned into someone who was…

On the show, he would say, “I love you just the way you are.” One day I said, “Fred, were you talking to me?” And he looked at me and he said, “Yes, I’ve been talking to you for two years and you finally heard me today.” And I just collapsed into his arms. I started crying. That’s when I knew I loved him.

I was just expressing something similar about Bourdain (except in regards to his gift for appreciating the basic humanity people from all cultures share, and presenting that to his viewing audience - his shows are often a great antidote to dehumanization and othering).

There’s not much I judge parents on, but failing to vaccinate is absolutely one of them.

The best/worst part is she doesn’t realize that she’s the one holding the real uninformed opinion. The people who are anti-vaccine tend to not know anything about what they’re talking about. I’d go on, but this stuff just makes me so angry for a great many reasons.

Also, I love how she says “so your negative comments are not going to influence my choices - actual research and educating myself will”

And, if you don’t know what it’s like to have the entire world openly criticize, judge, throw uninformed opinions,

In response to American Christians losing their privilege they have re-framed themselves as victims (martyrs) and Kirk Cameron’s movies play directly into these feelings.

Best Christian film? Life of Brian.