Roger is gay

"I can't believe Mr. Rogers is actually the Saint of Bisexuals," tweeted one person, "the kindest bisexual, the bisexual we all aspire to be as kind and loving as."

Another wrote, "That sound you hear across Twitter is the shrieking of a thousand bisexual adults delighted to find out a childhood hero, Mr.

Rogers, is one of our own."

"MR ROGERS IS THE BISEXUAL ICON THAT WE NEED IN 2019!!!!!" added someone else. His show regularly took on important and tough topics, like racism, the messiness of divorce, and the importance of inclusion. They didn’t really know how the public was going to react to the show, but, as it turned out, they reacted well to it.”

Jim mentions that when he wrote his book Golden Girls Forever, he commented that the first regular gay character on television was in the short-lived sitcom The Corner Bar, which aired in 1972.

So, when the gay rumors about him started swirling, it was no shock that he was well aware of them. Michael G. Long, who authored the biographical "Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers," noted Rogers' church in Pittsburgh was and continues to be inclusive to the LGBTQ community. It's not reasonable for me to expect a straight, cisgender man — even a superhero like Rogers — to possess a visionary moral compass and will to champion queer rights half a century before same-gender marriage even became normalized.

"It had to do with the economics of the show."

Rogers urged him to stay in the closet, believing Clemmons' sexuality may alienate viewers. Fred Rogers was to blame.

The whimsical theme song to "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" concluded a short but powerfully nostalgic preview for the new documentary about the soft-spoken star, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" And yeah, I'd morphed into a teary-eyed hot mess in a matter of seconds.

But Rogers wasn't immune to the backward views society has held of queer people. In many ways, Rogers was well ahead of his time, boldly pushing boundaries in the right directions. And he always warmly welcomed Clemmons’ gay friends whenever they visited the television set in Pittsburgh."

I can't speak for Mister Rogers, of course.

And this episode of All in the Family was before Soap with the groundbreaking character played by Billy Crystal — or anything else on TV. “So it was an issue that clearly existed in the world,” he says. That's all I can say about that." What's interesting, however, is that Ryan O'Callaghan, a former NFL player who is openly gay, mentioned in his book "My Life On The Line" that around the same time Rodgers was quashing those rumors, he abruptly cut off all contact with O'Callaghan.

The timing was suspicious enough to make fans — and O'Callaghan — wonder if the two events were connected. Panning homosexuality likely would have been applauded by many parents tuning in, as mainstream America widely embraced homophobic attitudes throughout much of Rogers' reign. I would probably be somewhere in the middle' and like.

Which, of course, is the reason that the show went after some of the most controversial story material it could from the moment it hit the CBS schedule. As countless gays came out more publicly following the Stonewall uprising, Rogers even urged Clemmons to enter into a longterm and stable gay relationship.

And Archie just didn’t have his eyes open to it.”

He also notes that the character of Steve is not ashamed at all — actually, he’s matter of fact about it — when Archie finds out about him, which is yet another positive of the episode. It was a gutsy thing to do and not only did it have a good message, especially for its day, but they did it so early in the show’s run.”

RELATED: ‘All in the Family Broke Every TV Taboo — Including the First Time a Toilet Was Heard Flushing

Making History

Anthony Geary, who of course would go on to play Luke Spencer on General Hospital, discussed the episode in his interview with the Archive of American Television, stating, “It was a terrific, wonderful experience working with those people on a show that as so innovative at that time.

"It was not a personal statement of how he felt about me," Clemmons assured UU World in 2016, noting the two remained close friends. YouTuber Cece Ewing posted about a recent conversation she had with her grandmother, in which the grandmother was surprisingly the one to break the news. 

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"Wildest thing that's happened to me lately is when I went to talk to my grandmother and she was like, 'Did you know Mr.

Rogers was bisexual?'" Cece's thread began. While any stereotype has some truth, what the episode took pains to show is that it never tells you whether Roger, Mike’s friend who wears the ascot and is very boisterous, and free talks with his hands, is gay or not. One example is episode five, “Judging Books by Covers,” which presented an unexpected take on the subject of homosexuality — at a time that nobody was dealing with it.

The All in the Family wiki offers up this plot description: “Archie thinks he knows a homosexual when he sees one and when Mike invites his flamboyant photographer friend Roger (Anthony Geary) to the Bunker household, Archie automatically assumes that Mike’s friend is a “flamer.” Retreating to the safety of Kelcy’s Bar, Archie chooses to spend time with his “he-man” pals, notably his old arm-wrestling crony Steve (Philip Carey), who, when hearing about Roger, reveals himself to be gay — which Archie never suspected.”

Television historian and author Jim Colucci, who is currently co-writing with Norman Lear a 50th-anniversary book devoted to All in the Family, comments, “This was a brand new show coming blazing out of the gate, because if they were going to tackle touchy issues in 1971, gay representation was certainly among the touchiest.