While browsing the blog Two World Collision, I found the following video clip from the 1950’s. It was apparently produced as a joint project between the school system and police department of Inglewood, CA, to warn young boys to watch out for “the homosexual.”
Watching this thing gave me the creeps but further, an appreciation for how much worse it must have been to grow up gay in the 50’s. It’s amazing how similar the warnings are to those of extreme anti-gay groups today. A connection to pedophilia is not implied, it is simply stated; the only distinction made is between a “passive” and “aggressive” homosexual.
If they had packaged it up as a warning about strangers or predators, it might even be considered progressive for it’s time. But as is, I can’t begin to imagine the guilt and doom a gay kid during that time must have felt after watching such a thing. Wow.
Do you see connections to present day anti-gay themes? If you were a child during the 50’s, do you ever remember seeing something like this video in school or at church? Anything more recent?
I saw this a few months ago. It would be funny if it weren’t so chillingly similar to anything coming out of Don Wildmon’s mouth.
I’ve probably said it here before. But my driver’s ed teacher made the comment that “You’ll never know who you’ll be on the road with: murders, rapists, and homosexuals.” And that was in 1990!
I didn’t think to say anything of it at the time, but it certainly upset me at various points since.
Sid Davis made quite a few of these type of films.
Aaron said:
Sid Davis made quite a few of these type of films.
It seems you are correct – he became a millionaire making this type of “social guidance film.” According to that article, he never consulted experts on the subject of his films but relied instead on anecdotal evidence. We’ve been here before!
It seems he is still alive. What a macabre interview that would be.
David Roberts
I collect a lot of ephemera films, and there are so many examples of these types of films. Check the Prelinger archives: https://www.archive.org/details/movies
Check out perversion for profit–the interesting thing is that the narrator/creator, a famous journalist, actually changed his views about homosexuality in the 90s. The films were really nasty and cruel. Lots of false ideas. I do wonder if we will see movies like I Do Exist in the future like the Sid Davis films.
One of the strangest film situations is the company who created driver’s ed films–Jam Handy. They made police films of park encounters in the 50s. However, the company got in a major scandal when it turned out they were making private porno movies of themselves.
I don’t mind these films because they are so ridiculous that they are somewhat funny. Ignorance is comedy.
I remember something of this genre back in grade school in the 60s. Other kids seemed to know what a homosexual was, at least they had a spate of words for such a thing. Took me forever to figure it out. Yeah, I was slow.
Then there was the time when I was 10 and taking a few lessons on the University’s Wurlitzer from their somewhat famous organist (alas, I really wasn’t up to anything near his caliber). But he was… “that way” … and my other organ teacher tried to warn me “not to get too close to him.” Like it was going to rub off on me… I was hoping some of his talent might… well, you know what I mean.
Anyone else notice that the kid in the first vignette was essentially put on probation for the crime of being molested? That’s a pretty twisted message to send.
“Anyone else notice that the kid in the first vignette was essentially put on probation for the crime of being molested?”
I noticed that too and thought WTF?
And I don’t mean to sound like a NAMBLA member, but I would have been tremendously excited if some attractive “passive homosexual” older man had tried to seduce me at that age. (The kid was 14 or 15.) I wonder if some kids started taking up hitchhiking after seeing this.
The same basic patterns are being used. In the Traditional Values Coalition’ Homosexual Urban Myths, we see the same stories passed off by TVS. At least they got rid of the evil homosexual predator pic. You can see the “myths” at https://www.traditionalvalues.org/urban/one.php
I’m still upset the title was “Boys Beware”…as if during this era girls weren’t the targets of sexual abuse.
That said, obviously boys have always had more freedom of movement than girls.
Inglewood, CA is a unincorporated city adjacent to LAX. Back when this film was made, it was a virtually all white suburb, but with white flight was an all black community by the late seventies.
The anti gay now do a serious disservice to the public because of their bias.
The jails are not as full of convicted gay sexual criminals as they’d like to think.
There is a serious dearth in fact, of VIOLENT gay criminals.
All they have to do is ask.
But they can’t be bothered.
I’m watching how the anti gay are twisting this around that gay people are to them, the ONLY sexually predatory.
And meanwhile, here in CA an 11 year old girl, who ran away from her group home was raped by a half dozen football players from a local city college.
Their defense?
“well, she looked old enough to us.”
I don’t care how tall, or what age they guess a female is.
What they HELL do they think they are doing looking for a sexual encounter with a female who is a complete stranger?
It carries risks nobody should be taking.
This is how and why Gwen Araujo was killed too.
Straight men never learn, do they? They sure aren’t teaching each other anything.
Evidently issues around sex, strangers and orientation are not portrayed or conveyed accurately or realistically to anyone.
Whatever age.
It’s a damn shame in the 21st century, and obviously very tragic.
“I wonder if some kids started taking up hitchhiking after seeing this.”
Funny you should say that. I never saw that film in high school, but a lot of books in the library that touched on the subject of homosexuality presented the image of a stranger luring unsuspecting teenage boys into their cars (apparently 15 year old boys aren’t supposed to even KNOW what homosexuals are.)So I began walking to stores, the shopping mall, etc., hoping some hot older(as a teen, that meant 20’s or early 30’s) guy might invite me for a ride. It was a recurring fantasy as a teenager. It never happened. I realize of course that’s a GOOD thing, but at the time, I was really disappointed-I thought it reflected poorly on me.
But the misinformation I received didn’t end there. Since I wasn’t ready to come out in high school, I found myself poring through books trying to find some sort of practical advice, always coming up short. I’m actually pissed off about this. Although by the time I was in high school, homosexuality was no longer being classified as a mental disorder, most of the books my school carried were about 10 years out of date. Not one of them acknowledged that a person under 18 could possibly be gay. One actually said that even if a person was exclusively attracted to members of the same sex, and not at all attracted to members of the opposite sex, it still didn’t mean they were homosexual. When I read that, I actually had to bite my lip from screaming, in the library, “Well what the f*** else COULD it mean, you idiot?”
Another thing I kept reading, over and over was “One experience does not make a person homosexual anymore than one drink makes a person alchoholic.” Aside from poor analogy presented, I found myself wondering, “Well, how many experiences do I have to have to qualify? Is it like those punch-cards you get for a free sub at a deli? Why is it you’re not gay unless you’ve slept around a lot, but hetereosexuals can be virgins and there’s no question about their sexual orientation?” What annoyed me most was that just about every book I looked through presented homosexuals as the “other” to be avoided, as if no homosexual might actually be reading them. Then in the very same books, they’d advise teens to talk to an adult if they think they might be the “other” to be avoided. Most mentioned some kind of reparative treatment, but none actually explained what that entailed. After much hunting, I came across one that talked about electroshock. (remember, these books were all horribly outdated.) All I could think was, if I tell my parents, they’ll haul me to some hospital where I’ll get zapped. Not exactly an incentive to open up. The only lesson I learned from all that searching for answers was, “Keep it to yourself.” Which could explain why I was getting headaches that lasted 15 hours and thought about killing myself every day.
In the spirit of open forum, ding dong the sick bastard’s gone:
https://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=8040
I know I shouldn’t celebrate over someone dying, but this guy caused an emormous amount of suffering in his life and never really paid for it. Unfortunately the article doesn’t mention the devestating impact his work had on intersexed persons, and makes it sound like he came up with the idea for sex changes.
Bill S, you’re bringing up very important points regarding public school’s responsibility to serve the needs of young gays and lesbians.
This is why any exgay groups MUST be kept away from young people and their message that ‘change is possible.’
As I’ve tried to explain to those who want to say they have an equally legitimate point of view to express, ex gays should look at your post.
Part of their OWN problems was a lack of such support.
It’s obvious that ex gays would continue to make gay young people’s need for affirmation and information be underserved all over again.
Its’ not enough to just be nice to gay kids.
Self determination has to be allowed and respected. Because when it’s all said and done.
We have history and empirical evidence that shows this lack of service to gay kids has created tragedy.
And accepting and educating for and from gay people has averted it.
Regan, to be honest, Sid Davis also did a Girls Beware, but it is not quite as offensive or salacious.
This brings up more than a few memories.
Early in high school (mid-70s) in San Leandro, CA,
a police officer came to speak to the social-sciences classes. Big lecture hall, over two hundred students. Only part I remember, but BOY do I remember it, was when he mentioned that the vast majority of all sexual child abuse was committed by male homosexuals against young boys.
Somehow (can’t even imagine how in retrospect) I managed to raise my hand during Q&A and politely challenge that factoid. He reiterated it, with great confidence.
Later, I found a copy of “Gay Liberation Handbook” at a local library. Smuggled it home and read it cover to cover, several times. It helped a LOT.
Lastly, in Wyndham Lewis’s novel “The Chrysalids”, there’s a depiction of a fear-ridden society, constantly policing its own members for ‘deviations’. Every home has signs posted with pithy warnings like WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT. Of course, the protagonist is a mutant, and has to flee for his life, and survives. Remarkable how that story resonated for me. ;>
Wow. I clicked on the video expecting to laugh my way through it.
I didn’t laugh once.
Instead, I began to feel nauseated. The conflation of pedophila and homsexuality is enraging. And the sheer fact that it is used as a metaphor for adult homosexual relationships (as in the first example) is doubly insulting.
Narth decided to get themselves a blog. So far it’s just reprints of other articles:
https://www.narth.com/blogs/currentevents/