Jane Fonda supported LGBTQ rights in a powerful 1979 interview

[Behind the Aegis]

An interview with actress and activist Jane Fonda in 1979 shows that her allyship with the LGBTQ community started decades ago, long before it became an important issue for other mainstream celebrities or activists.

In the short clip from the Kinolibrary Archive Film Collections, Fonda tells the interviewer at an event that gay and lesbian people were “absolutely” discriminated against.

“Culturally, psychologically, economically, politically – gays and lesbians are discriminated against,” she says. “They are a very powerful movement, especially in San Francisco. They don’t need me, but… they like me!”

Fonda cited her organization, the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED), as a strong resource for LGBTQ activists at that time. “Working together, we can be stronger than either entity is by itself.”

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[DBoon]

1. Recc'd for the reference to CED

A powerful group in the late 1970s that seems to have disappeared from history.

[hunter]

2. My family was Hollywood.

I grew up in a safe space.

But it was still a don't-ask-don't-tell closet, larger and roomier than most, but still a closet.

There could be a same sex couple, friends of my parents or grandparents, smooching on our sofa, but that stuff never left our house and we knew it.

My own life in 1979 was extremely fucked up by these kinds of secrets.

Maybe one of the worst days of my life was when my girlfriend's girlfriend tried to kill herself in my bathtub.

Or a childhood friend who killed himself because he was gay in a religion that couldn't accept that.

Or friends who died of AIDS while Ronald Reagan laughed.