Fred McFeely Rogers, the gentle host of the long-running children’s TV program Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, apparently found men and women attractive, according to a quote recently unearthed from Maxwell King’s 2018 biography The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers.
Here’s the section from King’s book mentioning Rogers’ sexuality:
In conversation with one of his friends, the openly gay Dr. William Hirsch, Fred Rogers himself concluded that if sexuality was measured on a scale of one to ten: “Well, you know, I must be right smack in the middle. Because I have found women attractive and I have found men attractive.”
It’s unclear whether the quote above came from Hirsch or Rogers himself.
It’s also unclear whether Rogers ever dated or fooled around with men (not that it would matter, seeing as a person can be bisexual without sleeping with more than one gender). Rogers married his one and only wife, Joanne Byrd, in 1952 and they had two children together.
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Regardless, some are now hailing Mr. Rogers as a new bisexual icon.
Mr. Rogers: "I have found women attractive, and I have found men attractive."
MR. ROGERS IS A BISEXUAL ICON?? 20biteen is off to a strong start https://t.co/fsS5JX7Mtq
— ex-blue hair oakland boy (@WellsLucasSanto) March 5, 2019
mr rogers is bi what a great day
— taylor behnke (@ItsRadishTime) March 5, 2019
Mr. Rogers is bi culture
— This is Bi Culture (@thisisbiculture) March 5, 2019
Today twitter found the passage in Mr. Rogers biography where he says he’s equally attracted to men and women, so of course the hets are out in full force trying to frame it as not meaning he’s bisexual
Fuck off straights he belongs to us now.
— Caitlin, not Caitlyn (@alltsun_nodere) March 6, 2019
This news is particularly exciting to us since in 2014 we ran an article entitled, “Does Mister Rogers Set Off Your Gaydar?”
King’s book also says that Rogers himself was often labelled “a sissy,” or gay:
As his longtime associate Eliot Daley put it: “Fred is one of the strongest people I have ever met in my life. So if they are saying he’s gay because … that’s a surrogate for saying he’s weak, that’s not right, because he’s incredibly strong.” He adds: “He wasn’t a very masculine person, he wasn’t a very feminine person; he was androgynous.”
King notes that in a 1975 interview for The New York Times, Rogers said, “I’m not John Wayne, so consequently for some people I’m not the model for the man in the house.”
That’s good because John Wayne was kind of a jerk.
François Clemmons, an openly gay actor who played Officer Clemmons on the show, said that while Rogers discouraged him from coming out as gay on the show, noting that some viewers would be uncomfortable with it, Rogers still accepted Clemmons as a gay man.
Clemmons applauded Rogers for teaching children kindness and empathy on his show.
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DCguy
Never hurts to have an admirable person as a member of the LGBT club.
calpoidog
finding someone of the same sex “attractive” doesn’t mean you’re bisexual. Ugh.
jrh311
That’s what I was thinking. Getting desperate for representation. Just like the Bert & Ernie nonsense.
Bryguyf69
ER, try reading the rest of that passage in context: “…if sexuality was measured on a scale of one to ten: ‘Well, you know, I must be right smack in the middle.'”
What does being “right smack in the middle” of a scale measuring sexuality mean, if not bisexuality? Think about it.
Donston
I am getting a lil’ tried of this site and many other sites giving people identities that they themselves never embraced.
No one knows if this man ever had sexual contact with a guy yet alone dated a guy. And we’re talking about the account of one person from a conversation that apparently happened many decades ago. Also, just because someone says that they have attractions to multiple gender doesn’t mean that they see themselves as “bi”. Even today there are many people who have attractions to multiple genders but don’t really consider themselves bi, and there are people who only have attractions to one gender but do feel they’re bi. We just need to accept that maybe half of people are not entirely inherently heterosexual or homosexual and that the romantic, sexual, emotional, relationship spectrum is legit. Then perhaps folks won’t continue to be so thirsty when it comes to trying to find “representation” everywhere, and we can look at people and their particular stories individually.
Pete le meat
I doubt that identity politics ever entered Mr Rogers’ mind. The vast majority of men want nothing to do with it. Wisely, they avoid stuffy identities like gay, straight or bi.
Kangol
“Identity politics.” You mean what you spew every time you post on this site, Brian/JasonSmeds/Pete le meat?
nunya
I’ve been married to a woman. Had a child. Dated men. Now married to a man. I find some women attractive. I’m gay. PERIOD. I was gay when I was married to a woman and fathered a child. I am gay now. I will always be gay. Just because you find attractiveness in both sexes doesn’t mean you’re bi or gay or straight. For me it’s the gender that you connect with on an intensely intimate level that determines your identity. I can perform physically with both men and women, but it’s men that I connect with on a deeper level. To speculate whether Fred Rogers connected with men both physically and emotionally just because he said he found both men and women attractive is just that – speculation.
Bryguyf69
But you’re ignoring the fact that Rogers was quoted as placing himself in the middle of a sexuality scale. That’s the very definition of bisexuality. Whether the book quoted Rogers himself or his friend, William Hirsch, is unclear. But it’s clear that at some point, Rogers allegedly made that statement. If true, then he is bisexual. Period.
jcoberkrom
Mr. Roger’s was a role model and his sexuality is irrelevant.
Some of my best friends are heterosexual, but I wouldn’t want to marry one.
Kangol
Who knows if he was bisexual but he was most certainly queer, and attracted to men and women. He also was one of the most positive influences to appear on TV for decades. He exuded warmth, kindness, respect, and love. We need many more like him.
Ashke113
Who cares, the man is dead leave him the hell alone already. I swear if if they did an xray of King Tut and discovered a dick up his ass every fag would lose their collective shit……Grow up leave the man alone let him rest in peace and mind your own business.
Curtispsf
Ashke113 – Considering the venomous stuff that spews out of your mouth, it seems to me that YOU need a dick up your ass. Then maybe some of the bullshit coming from your mouth can finally be freed.