They, along with other favorite sitcom characters, were influences on American punk culture and today are looked upon as pioneers. Even kids planted in front of the television sets in the 1960s knew there was something “funny” about Uncle Arthur and Claymore Gregg.
Most did not “come out” officially, but there was no need. But along with political activists and social revolutionaries, there were a number of entertainers who, in the decades surrounding the rebellion, brought a clear, if often exaggerated, gay presence into American homes. With this year’s Gay Pride Month marking the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, the accomplishments of LGBT heroes of the past fifty years have been widely celebrated. In a way, though, they helped to blaze trails for which they were never given credit. The faces of these three actors were familiar to Baby Boomers raised on TV situation comedies.
