Who still shocks me. I’m convinced Nancy McKeon fakes being hetero even to the point of marrying and having kids just so she doesn’t have to get a lecture from Lisa Whelchel. (Geri Jewell said she and Whelchel were very close at one point until Jewell got sick of hearing sermonettes on the sins of lesbianism.)
Not only was Kristy outed by the tabloids while Empty Nest was on, her lover was said to be Liberace’s niece, Ina. (In fact here’s a 1981 article in which she discusses moving in with her as roommates.)
I always think of her and her brother with their matching feather-bangs as official spokesmodels for the late 70s/early 80s.
Oh come on now, Stipe should know better than anyone what an alternate universe the music industry is. Wearing eyeliner and a skirt proves nothing really.
It’s not clear if the teaching thing is current or something she had done some time ago. If she is currently teaching and working with young people, it is possible- even likely- that she is in regular contact with, mentoring, young people who are struggling with various issues related to coming to terms with who they are- issues of sexual orientation and/or a host of other issues that trouble people as they are coming of age.
Being in a teaching position she may feel an obligation to be open about the kind of thing she may be hoping to see her students come to terms with. She may even feel a sense that such openess is long overdue. She may have had difficult conversations of the “How can you advise me to do something you’ve never done yourself” variety.
If she is teaching currently, I believe my above speculation could closely resemble the source of her motivation to make a public statement. Yes, it is a somewhat detailed speculation considering the lack of facts- still, if she is currently teaching I believe my speculation could have some grounds.
If she is not currently teaching . . . yeah, I agree, seems a pretty pointless announcement.
I doubt she’s advised any of her students to come out by having their publicist send a statement to People magazine. McNichol could have come out to her coworkers, students, etc., without getting the press involved. I’m not saying she necessarily came out this way just to get attention – she’s been voluntarily out of the spotlight for many years, and she may have decided it was better to issue a statement that she’d prepared herself than have secondhand information wind up on a celebrity gossip blog – but countless LGBT folk do manage to come out without the help of the national media.
Actually it did. I was little, but even I remember Anita Bryant and her “Save The Children” campagin
Around 1976 till the age of AIDS, gay characters were coming more common, though they were still a big deal. AIDS pretty much threw it back a lot.
You had “Three’s Company,” with a pseudo-gay character, “Soap” with a gay character that was really all over the boards. Jodie was gay, he was a transvestite, wanted a sex change, etc.
It was definitely out there. AIDS shoved it back into the closet for most of the 80s
I’m of the age group that remembers her from Family. I never really watched the show except occasionally when she was featured because I thought she was pretty cute. Same goes for Little Darlings (Foxes was a *much *better, more serious film BTW). And until reading it here just now I had no idea she was a lesbo. She quite show business like 25 years ago. The last thing I remember reading about her was that she was crazy (bi-polar or clinical depression or something) and that had to be like 20 years ago…
DAMN!!! And I always was a Kristy girl… siding with her over Tatum O’neal in little darlings!!! I just hope the poor woman is happy and enjoying mental health…
However, for example, I don’t think celebs were “coming out” publicly back then nor the “homosexuality” subject as large a subject in American psyche as it is today. I don’t think people sat around pondered whether their favorite celebs might be gay back then. From my memory, ‘gay’ subject didn’t carry anywhere close to today’s prominence. Entertainment industry’s gay characterizations were light and whimsical as were on your examples of Three’s Company and Soap. I guess we were on the verge though in hind sight.
I remember way, way back when she was in a sickeningly wholesome, cheap-shit Waltons knockoff called Apple’s Way. Then a few years later she was in Little Darlings and I thought, wow, she got un-wholesome in a hurry.
I might be thinking of somebody else, but it seems like there was a movie with Kristy in it where another girl (or maybe it was her to another girl) telling her to put rouge on her nipples so they’d show up better.
It’d be interesting to see her paired with “been there and back again” Tatum O’Neal in a vehicle. (Perhaps a Little Darlings update, this time with 50-ish cougars who make a bet.)
