Brokaw’s a nitwit. That’s why I stopped watching NBC news when the wad took over.

And who stole Frances’ screen name for that second comment?

People DO NOT have a right to write their personal view of American History.

WE GOT IT.

once again, the George W. Bush “with us or against us” / “all or nothing” mentality rears it’s coked up head…

WE GOT IT.

Be still and know that I am God!

At first glance, someone so “white” could be forgiven for not being aware of gay activism in the U.S. that goes back to the ‘50s. Many, possibly even most, modern gays are unaware of it, too. However, the limited attention to Stonewall in 1969, and the fact that it didn’t begin to permeate public consciousness beyond NY until the next year, is, again, irrelevant because, as an earlier NY Times article featured on Queerty indicated, despite his effectively DISHONEST disclaimer above, Brokaw “loosely defines the ‘60s as the period from 1963 TO 1974.” That would include not just the period involving Stonewall but four years of growing pride events across the country celebrating its anniversary, and the development of gay groups on countless college campuses as Kameny noted. His ignoring that [versus being ignorant of it], and their continued, even larger and broader existence today is irresponsible, and, YES, homophobic.

Brokaw could have demonstrated the type of nexus of events that historians wet themselves for by making note of the fact that the organizer of the still famous 1963 March on Washington for Black civil rights [which is one of the main subjects of his selective book] was organized by an out gay Black man, Bayard Rustin. As Kameny noted, the White House was first picketed by gays in 1965. Demonstrations in the ‘60s against antigay military policies [which he could have linked to the number of medal-winning gay vets who have since come out and bills in Congress today to admit gays to the military] predate that as does the first statewide decriminalization of sodomy in Illinois—a MAJOR change in American culture and jurisprudence that he could have linked to the Supreme Court decision “legalizing” sodomy nationwide in 2003. [Kameny could have also mentioned that, in 1971, he was the first out gay to run for Congress, and was a major player in that first great national triumph [with international influence] that occurred in 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association ruled that gays are not inherently mentally ill. A decision that got HUGE mainstream media coverage and, again, occurred within the functional timeframe of Brokaw’s book. It was, in its own way, as significant as the Constitutional amendment permitting Black males to vote.

And 1974 was a watershed year for us as Kathy Kozachenko and Elaine Noble, became the first out gays elected to public office, and already elected Allan Spear came out. {Kameny mildly errs re Noble/’72.] Along with Jose Sarria’s [1961] and Kameny’s attempts, Brokaw could have linked that to the number of out gay office holders today but commented on the significance that there are only TWO out members of the US Congress four decades later.

Employing the “where are they now?” angle as he does so much throughout his book, he could have included David Mixner who, while closeted then, played a key role in the challenge of Eugene McCarthy to LBJ and was one of the organizers of the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam in 1969 that had tens of thousands descending upon Washington and millions of participants across the country and Europe. That was when Mixner became friends with student Bill Clinton, who organized a parallel demonstration at Oxford [used against him by Bush pere when they ran against each other]. Years later after coming out, Mixner was instrumental in many gay rights campaigns, including helping engineer Ronald Reagan coming out against Prop 6 which would have banned gays from teaching in California, and, more famously, helped elect Clinton [and then fell out with him over DADTDP].

And, as mentioned, there was the huge role lesbians played in the women’s movement which Brokaw give ample discussion while degaying it. There was also a scandalous effort to drive them out led by feminist matriarch Betty Friedan. But, hey, just because gays were major players in that and the other two main subjects of Brokaw’s solipsistic book, as well as being one of the two issues that gave rise to the extremely powerful and rich “Religious Right,” why should he “see” us any more now than he did forty years ago? I guess being 50% of something isn’t mathmatically significant in Brokaw’s white world.

Being gay is not a choice but ignoring us is, just as not “hearing” the many LGBT voices and issues that have boomed across those decades. For all his celebrity news reader/author status [”white” men idolizing other “white” men], we highly doubt that these or any of Brokaw’s memorabilia will ever take the same hallowed place next to Thomas Jefferson’s desk and other “American Treasures” as Kameny’s has.

FOR YOU PANSY POLLYANNAS, PAY ATTENTION: Brokaw was a reporter for NBC out of Los Angeles, not Bumfuck, South Dakota, in 1966. Not only would that have put him in a newsroom that would have received wire service reports about Stonewall three years later, but gay activism was ALREADY an issue IN Los Angeles by that time. Just ONE example: a local demonstration against the military ban on gays IN 1966, the same year Brokaw started at KNBC:

“As [Harry] Hay and his staff carried on their interviews with NEWS REPORTERS, the Los Angeles Police Department, realizing that the event was actually going to take place, and already beset by Watts uprisings, could only foresee further difficulty in a homosexual motorcade through the streets of the city. ‘If you want to go into military service, why don’t you just sign up?’ Sgt. Wesley Sherman of Police Department Special Events asked Don Slater. ‘Why create an incident?’ But a desire to go into the service was not the question. Don Slater and most other Committee members had already served and had been honorably discharged. ‘Who wants to be drafted?” Slater asked NEWSWEEK reporter Phil Hagen. ‘Surely not the homosexual. But the government’s categoric rejection of all persons it knows to be homosexual is un-American and based on ignorance and superstition. Homosexuals are asking for equal rights and benefits from their country. At the same time they recognize their equal duties and responsibilities.’…By Friday night everyone was a little on edge. ‘TIME’ photographers were all over the place. …[While, ultimately, only the ‘Free Press’, covered it among local papers] Committee members did see themselves on CBS News at 6:00 and 11:00 that night.” Emphasis mine.
-http://www.tangentgroup.org/history/articles/motorcade.html

If other local reporters were aware of it, and KNBC’s competitor covered it, and even international magazines “Newsweek” and “Time,” why are such things so absent from Brokaw’s chronicle, again, when it would be so appealing for an objective historian to write something like, 41 years later, and 22 years after Air Force T. Sgt. Leonard Matlovich appeared on the cover of “Time,” gay men and women are still fighting to serve their country openly.” Why? BECAUSE HE’S A FUCKING, ARROGANT BIGOT.
Further, it’s not just his memories but he SELECTIVELY interviewed countless others for the book, hence the title “VoiceS of the Sixties.”

Per the NY Times article Queerty originally linked to, which also noted Brokaw’s ignoring the gay civil rights movement:

“Tom Brokaw’s ‘Boom!’ orchestrates a baby-boom epiphany. It stages a virtual reunion of America’s Class of 1968, accompanied by a full spectrum of opinions about the impact of that pivotal year. Although he describes his role in this process as that of moderator and class president, there’s more to it than that. Mr. Brokaw serves as a latter-day Rip Van Winkle, awakening to marvel at FOUR DECADES’ WORTH OF CHANGES in the book’s DOZENS of interviewees.” Emphasis mine.

From Amazon’s description: “The voices and stories of both famous people and ordinary citizens come together as Brokaw takes us on a memorable journey through a remarkable time, exploring how individual lives and the national mindset were affected by a controversial era and showing how the aftershocks of the Sixties continue to resound in our lives today. In the reflections of a generation, Brokaw also discovers lessons that might guide us in the years ahead. …Race, war, politics, feminism, popular culture, and music are all explored here, and we learn from a wide range of people about their lives.” EXCEPT FOR THE GAYS! Brokaw couldn’t think of ONE gay man or woman to include? Were we all living in some other country but suddenly shipped en masse to the USA in 1975?

Brokaw is a bigot who cherry-picked people and quotes that would reinforce his own very narrow, very “white” view of the world. Gays and lesbian lives, MILLIONS of people who were not only pursuing their personal freedom but were directly involved in EVERY OTHER movement that he covers in detail are IRRELEVANT in his eyes.

For shame!

Giving a talking head newscaster like Brokaw the authoritative POV on an entire decade is inane. He didn’t include gays because he doesn’t think about them. His parsing out an excuse, as if gays weren’t newsworthy until we started dying, is preposterous, but entirely in line with his sort of minimizing, distant news reporting.