First Documentary on Gays in America Now Publicly Available
BY Claire Potter ON June 23, 2015
KQED station manager James Day, 1961, warning viewers that they are about to see a film about homosexuals.
The Rejected, broadcast in 1961 and believed to be the first documentary on gay life in the United States, is now publicly available. Produced by KQED San Francisco, it had scenes shot inside a gay bar, allowing many in the broader public who may have believed they had never met a gay man or lesbian to gain a glimpse of queer society in action. As importantly, although aspects of the films perspective will strike modern viewers as homophobic, in the film queer people spoke as experts about themselves, an opportunity for which homophile organizations like the Daughters of Bilitis, the Mattachine Society, and ONE Institute had campaigned for nearly a decade.
The film was presumed to have been lost: in fact, much early television has been destroyed because the tapes — often seen as more valuable than their content — were frequently reused by budget-conscious directors to record new shows. But a team of scholars and archivists from the Bay Area Television Archive at San Francisco State University finally found a copy at the Library of Congress. You can read the full story of their quest here and you can watch the restored version of The Rejected here.
Riveting…thanks for sharing this, CP.