File this week under "You can't make this stuff up." Expect no rainbow-lit White House for the onset of Pride month: those days are long gone. GLAAD just released a depressing report May 25 about the sorry state of LGBT visibility in film, noting that TV is the place to see LGBT characters. That too, as we have reported, is still far more dismal than it should be in 2017.
Pride month does have some offerings on the tube, though, and some of the season finales this week featured LGBT characters. Cyrus is back on "Scandal," but Minnick was fired on "Grey's Anatomy." Now that the spring season is officially over, new shows as well as returning favorites are premiering over the summer months. "Game of Thrones," "Fear the Walking Dead," "Queen of the South" and "America's Got Talent" are all back in the coming weeks. "Snowfall" and "The Sinner" looks like new series you won't want to miss.
And what would Pride be without "Orange Is the New Black?" The hit series returns for season 5 June 9, and will stream the whole season immediately so you can binge or savor, as the mood takes you. This season takes place in just three days, so will feel like real time, and is, according to cast interviews, the most intense season ever. If you aren't watching, why not?
While it won't be here until the fall, Debra Messing reported May 25 that our old fave "Will & Grace" is set to return for a reboot, 11 years after the "W&G" finale in 2006. Messing says the revival was spurred by Hillary Clinton's loss in November, which left the cast, who had done an ad for the Democratic nominee who won the popular vote, depressed and unsettled.
"I think, at least for me," said Messing, in an interview on Sirius, "the country is scared and confused, and so many things are changing very quickly. And I was feeling a deep need to laugh. I wasn't sleeping, I wasn't eating. Then when we got together and we laughed, it was just so healing." Expect to feel the heal come September. Messing, who follows us on Twitter, has been giving updates regularly.
Of course the ongoing drama in Washington is taking center stage on cable news this summer, making CNN and MSNBC must-see TV for members of the resistance, while the aftermath of the tragedy of the Manchester bombing continues to evolve. But maybe, too, as former Secretary of State John Kerry said on CNN May 24, invest in a language course.
"I'm often asked what the secret is to have a real impact on government," said Kerry. "Well, it's recently changed. I used to say, either run for office or get a degree from Harvard Kennedy School. With this White House I'd say, buy Rosetta Stone and learn Russian." Rosetta Stone is an online language-learning resource.
If only that had been the oddest thing we saw on TV last week. But Trump left Washington for his first trip abroad as POTUS, and between some weird stuff at the Vatican reminiscent of the old "Addams Family" TV show, which prompted endless internet memes; Trump dissing Angela Merkel yet again, then shoving Montenegro Prime Minister Markovic in the bullying move shown round the world; it's been awesome TV-watching.
Then there was that event in Montana, which, although just audio, led every TV news show on May 25 as now-incumbent Congressman Greg Gianforte body-slammed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs, breaking his glasses and bruising him a lot. That event led former Navy Seal Robert O'Neill, who claims to have fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden and who is a native of Montana, to tell Fox News May 25 that Jacobs is a "snowflake." On Fox News' "The Specialists," O'Neill said the incident seemed "kind of funny based on my history. All of a sudden, what happened there in Montana, apparently this snowflake reporter invaded Gianforte's safe space," O'Neill said. "And we have a saying up there, you know, if you mess around, you mess around, and you might not be around." Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault on Jacobs 12 hours before the polls opened May 25. As we said, you can't make this stuff up.
Top lesbian
The state of the union also propelled some TV history. Rachel Maddow rocketed to the top of the cable news world May 25, ejecting Fox for the first time ever. There's some lovely poetic justice in having the sole lesbian news anchor on the tube grab the top slot just in time for Pride month.
MSNBC has long trailed both Fox (the inexplicable cable news leader, now without their top man, Bill O'Reilly) and CNN. Maddow, who has a Ph.D. in political science, has wooed many a left-leaning viewer with her in-depth tales of Russian intrigue and all things Trump, the latest being the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, being investigated by the FBI.
On May 25 Maddow revealed in an interview with Sirius anchor Howard Stern that she and Roger Ailes, the Fox News tycoon who was fired last year for sexual harassment of Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly and other women at Fox, were good friends. Ailes died May 18. Maddow told the shock jock that Ailes had offered her a lot of advice on her cable news career, and that Ailes was "really kind to her" and was "gracious" and "gave me stuff to think about." Ailes had previously blurbed her book "Drift." Ailes made no sexual advances toward Maddow, she told Stern.
According to Maddow, Ailes even offered her a job at Fox. "And actually, this was not that long ago, within the last few years. He told me he wanted to hire me at Fox, then he told me he would never put me on the air."
The kicker, Maddow explained, was that Ailes wanted to take her out of the cable news running, to put her, she said, on ice. The man who built Fox clearly saw a star on the rise and wanted to hide her light under the proverbial bushel. Now that Kelly and Carlson are gone, there is no other woman on cable who has the cachet of Maddow, so he was right.
Maddow said she considered it, briefly. "I was like, 'So you'd pay me a full contract to not work?' Who would not consider that?" Fortunately for us, Maddow chose to stay with MSNBC.
Much as we love Maddow, we need more than just one hour of lesbian time for Pride month. Unsurprisingly, the place to turn for Pride is (until Trump's budget takes away all funding for public television) PBS. PBS's Pride programming is trans heavy, which should please the trans community. Among the offerings are the documentary film "A Self-Made Man," which focuses on transgender activist and life coach Tony Ferraiolo. Ferraiolo transitioned from female to male and counsels trans persons and their families, with a focus on trans kids, some as young as eight.
"From this Day Forward" is a moving portrayal of an American family coping with one of life's most intimate transformations. When director Sharon Shattuck's father came out as transgender, Sharon was in the awkward throes of middle school. As the Shattucks reunite to plan Sharon's wedding, she seeks a deeper understanding of how her parents' marriage, and their family, survived intact.
At the opposite end of the age spectrum, "Growing Up Trans" is an intimate look at the struggles and choices facing transgender kids and their families. In a 90-minute special airing June 30, PBS's Emmy-laden "Frontline" focuses on the struggles facing transgender kids and their families. PBS calls the show "an intimate and eye-opening journey" into what it means to be "facing the choices" involved in being a trans kid.
"Kumu Hina" tells the inspiring story of Hina Wong-Kalu, a transgender hula teacher who brings to life Hawaii's traditional embrace of māahūu, those who embody both male and female spirit. Over the course of a year, Hina inspires a young student to claim her place as leader of an all-male hula troupe, while Hina herself pursues a fulfilling romantic relationship with a headstrong Tongan man.
Other offerings are geared toward gay and lesbian viewers. "Limited Partnership" is a timely and heartbreaking tale in these days of Trump deportations that adversely impact our community every day. It tells the story of a gay male couple, a Filipino American and an Australian, who fell in love and over the course of 40 years took on the U.S. government to fight for marriage and immigration equality.
In 2006, Bill O'Reilly ran a segment on his now-defunct Fox News program "The O'Reilly Factor" entitled, "Violent Lesbian Gangs a Growing Problem." An altercation between a man and seven lesbians in New Jersey in Aug. 2006 resulted in the man, Dwayne Buckle, being injured. A trial ensued, and four of the seven women, all black, were convicted by an all-white jury. Buckle, also black, claimed it was a hate crime perpetrated by aggressive lesbians against a straight man. The women said Buckle came onto them, then insulted them with lesbophobic slurs, and a scuffle ensued in which Buckle was cut with a steak knife, requiring five days of hospitalization.
PBS tells the lesbian side of the story for Pride month. "Out in the Night" is a moving account of the four women who were convicted and sensationalized by the media as a "Gang of Killer Lesbians." "The O'RF" had described the incident from a point of view sympathetic to Buckle, detailing a "national underground network that's actually recruiting kids as young as 10 years old, engaging in 'homosexual recruitment.'" O'Reilly's story described these so-called lesbian gangs as groups that "just want to hurt people." "Out in the Night" redeems the women, who were, it seemed to us at the time, acting in self-defense. Three years earlier Sakia Gunn and several lesbian friends had been in a similar altercation with a group of men. Gunn, just two weeks shy of her 16th birthday, was stabbed and later died in the hospital. May 11 was the 14th anniversary of her murder.
"OITN" examines the sensational case of the so-called "killer lesbians," and the women's uphill battle, revealing the role that race, gender identity and sexuality play in our criminal justice system, and how lesbians are often targeted on the street as victims, but turned into perpetrators by the courts. This is especially true for gender-non-conforming or butch lesbians, who are perceived as hyperaggressive in a society that still demands meekness from women.
"Before You Know It" celebrates our gay senior citizens and the first generation of out gays who've witnessed our evolving history through the activism leading up to and through Stonewall, through the HIV/AIDS pandemic to the current fight for legal equity through DADT, marriage equality and beyond. It focuses on Dennis, Ty and Robert, three gay men who are pioneers of that out generation. They are also among the estimated 2.4 million LGBT Americans over the age of 55. (We're sure this is an underestimate, but the Trump administration has nixed adding LGBT questions to the 2020 Census, so who can know for sure?) "BYKI" celebrates the lives of active gay senior citizens and all they have witnessed, a compelling documentation of what Pride really means for the generation without whom it might not exist.
"The New Black" centers on the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland. It looks at how the black community grapples with what is often perceived to be a divisive issue, gay and lesbian rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage, and charts how attitudes evolve on the streets, in the pews, and at the kitchen table.
"Our Run" follows a historic campaign to convince Filipino voters that LGBTQ people belong in politics, a truly epic prospect in Duterte's Philippines. Bemz Benedito is the first transgender woman to run for a seat in the Philippine Congress. Her party, which calls itself the only LGBT political party in the world, is on a historic quest to convince voters that gay and transgender people belong in drag competitions and politics. "Out Run" is the story of their campaign, and asks: In this Catholic and often conservative country, can they win?
Other offerings include "You're Dead to Me," the story of a mother and estranged teen who revisit unresolved differences with each other on a tragic anniversary date. "A Good Man" is the touching story of Bryan Wilmoth and his efforts to reconnect with his younger siblings after being kicked out of the house for being gay. "Disaster Preparedness" pulls a lesbian couple out of their comfort zone and drops them at the crossroads of commitment, disaster and the art of being prepared. The short film by UCLA student Melissa Finell was made as part of KQED's Film School Shorts.
What would Pride be without Stonewall? "Stonewall Uprising" documents the pivotal turning point in the modern gay and lesbian civil rights movement. Those historic moments in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village, became the night that would live in gay historical infamy. That night the street erupted into protests and demonstrations that lasted for the next three days. The Stonewall riots marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the US and around the world. And that, boys and girls and everyone in-between and non-binary, is why June is Pride month.
All the PBS Pride month offerings, which also include stories about Chicago's LGBTQ community and the history of gay rights in Miami, are available at PBS online through June 28, as well as on your local station (check listings). We admit we are sentimental about Pride, being of that first generation to come out in high school (well, we were expelled from high school for being a lesbian, so violently outed might be a better description), so we want you to watch these LGBTQ pieces because they are part of our evolving history, most of which has yet to be written.
So for the latest on all things Trumpian and the celebration of our collective fight for LGBTQ freedom, you know what to do: watch Rachel at night, catch some Logo "Drag Race," binge-watch "OITNB" and set your DVR for PBS. Oh, and of course, stay tuned.