The Pink Menace!

My dads generation loves to point out how good the old days were....A simpler time, when milk and honey ran freely down golden streets. Of course, this is also inverse to the stories he told me about walking five miles to school, in the snow, with his brother on his back when I complained that I didn't want to go to school...

The good old days weren't always so good. They may have been simpler, but simple doesn't always equal better. For example, this educational film meant to warn young boys against the dangers of homosexuals. Its no wonder at all that my dad sent me bad messages about being gay, given the messages he received himself....like the educational film above, "Boys Beware". Itwas released in 1961 by Sid Davis productions.

The ideas expressed in this movie are the ones that shaped the minds of the generation before me, and by extension, my generation. Somehow though, as my dads generation grew up, they retained this message long enough to resist gay marriage which I always find ironic from the generation that rejected most/all social norms and gave us "flower children". Even the most staunchly conservative young people of his day still had their flirtations with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But still the message that "gay=bad" stuck like glue.

The movie itself makes a shameful attempt to equate Homosexuality with Pedophilia. The two are not the same in any sense. As I watched this film and heard its exhortations against strangers, it was hard not to hear it through my parents voices. And so the echoes of films like these ripple down the generations...but on to the movie....

Lets take the case of "Jimmie Barns". Jimmie played baseball all afternoon and decided to thumb a ride home.....HE'D DONE IT A HUNDRED TIMES BEFORE.....

Um...really?...Who the hell were Jimmies parents that they let him hitch rides with strangers a hundred times before. I know times were different...but not that different. Perhaps, "Jimmie" is discovering something about himself as well because he repeatedly hangs out with an older man instead of his friends. And "Jimmie hadn't enjoyed himself so much in a long time"...uh, not even playing baseball with his friends or chasing girls...he is in his midteens after all. Methinks "Jimmie" is a closet case....Hey, if this film can be ridiculous, so can I.

Cue Rod Serling...

What Jimmie didn't know was that Ralph was sick. A sickness that was not visible, like smallpox, but no less dangerous and CONTAGIOUS. A sickness of the mind....you see, Ralph was a homosexual. A person who DEMANDS (wow...high maintainance) an intimate relationship with members of their own sex

Not the Pink Menace! That stuffs contagious!...like all other forms of "mental illness"....But seriously, people still believe this crap today.

America was already deep in anti-communist hysteria and it didn't take any work at all to tack homosexuals onto the list of people to be afraid of. If you think about how many people are living "out" lives today its astounding to consider that there were just as many back then, living in the closet and that these people were decent people who never harmed any child or subscribed to the communist agenda. They served your food. repaired your car, bandaged your injuries, defended their country, and suffered in silence. Yes folks, we've been here all along and demonizing us by equating us with pedophilia and mental illness is a worn out lie. Although I must say, This is actually the fairer minded opinion if you put it up against the "burn them at the stake" attitudes of previous ages.

Apparently some of Ralph's cooties rubbed off on Jimmie and now he's gone and caught "teh gay"....Poor, Poor Jimmie. But here's the funny thing...

But by now Jimmie felt a fondness for Ralph and they continued to go places together.

I told ya...."Jimmies" closet door just swung open. And why the hell did Jimmie get probation? what is this? guilt by association?

Next the movie takes a darker, more sinister, and more shameful twist in that it portrays gays as predators and murderers....

but not all homosexuals are passive. Some result to violence as in the case of "Mike Merick".

This is the truly awful part of this movie. Things like this DO happen in everyday life. I try very hard to make sure my kids understand that there are things you do to keep yourself safe...and to NEVER trust strangers. Too many kids have died to scenarios just like what this movie depicts....BUT.... The shamefully wrong part though, is when the murderer is cast as gay.

Most of the pedophiles that come through Jays Job at the S.F. county Jail are straight though that doesn't really have much to do with why this happens. Pedophilia isn't about gay or straight at all but about dominance and repeating what was done to them by their abuser. Looking at the stats victims are more often abused by people they knew, like their father, step-father, uncles, older brothers etc than by a complete stranger. Also, reports of abuse more often come from heterosexual homes. Though, Gay people are just as capable of doing these awful things too, as a recent case sadly shows. though this happens not because they are gay but because of something else that happens to them that causes such a sickness to develop, and equating all gay people to this act does a disservice not only to gay people, but also to the victims of these crimes.

But these were the messages that shaped the attitudes and opinions in my fathers day and he in turn passed them on to me. Its no wonder that when I came out I had so many fears about what I would become. These are the messages that we have to erase by showing the world who we really are....and that our love is as real as everyone Else's.

This has been a Gay Family values community service message