I heard about the film last night on PBS, wasn’t able to catch it. For those of you unaware, Lance was the sonof Betty and Bill loud, of the “AMERICAN FAMILY”, which aired on PBS in 1973!
Lance was openly gay, and really delighted in being a raging queen. However, his death (of AIDS at age 50) sounds truly pathetic-he was by all accounts, totally destroyed by the virus.
What does this say about the gay lifestyle? Is being gay in America a health hazard?
Finally, anybody know if the old series from 1973 is lurking somewhwere on DVD?
poor Lance…I kinda knew he would come to a bad end!
Good grief.
“Lucy was openly hetero, and really delighted in being a raging hetero. However, her death (of AIDS at age 50) sounds truly pathetic-she was by all accounts, totally destroyed by the virus. What does this say about the hetero lifestyle? Is being hetero in America a health hazard?”
It is rare that an OP can be somewhat sympathetic yet arrogantly evil and homophobic at the same time.
Thank you DMark.
I remember the first documentary way back when. I’m 48 years old, and for the past 30 years I have lived an “open gay lifestyle”. Fortunatly, I’m healthy and happy. I’m sorry to hear about Lance Loud. And I’m sorry for all the friends that I have lost in the past 20 years to AIDS.
And just a reminder to the OP. The “gay lifestyle” does not cause AIDS.
I would really like to talk about the telivision show, if I may.
I had never heard of the Louds, Lance or any of the others. I couldn’t sleep the other night, and I happened upon this around 2A.M.
Well, that was it for me sleeping that night.
I haven’t been so moved by a television program in a dog’s age. To watch a fellow human being on their slow and not very pleasant journey into the arms of death is a very powerful thing, and a very intimate one. Lance was a very brave and generous man for sharing this with us, as was his family.
When Lance had to leave his home and his beloved cats for hospice care, and the cats seemed to sense it and were all over him, tears were running down my face.
But I loved to see the footage of him all dressed up, and on his bike in happier times…and it also made me very happy to see how far the relationship between him and his dad had come in 20 years. I give them both credit. And his mother…oh to lose a child…I can’t imagine the anguish.
The footage of his memorial service was very moving. Tears AND laughter. Like his life. Like all our lives.
It doesn’t matter how he loved or how he died. The world lost, from what Iould tell, a pretty remarkable human being, and his family and friends mourn him deeply.
Isn’t that all that matters really?
I had watched the original show but none of the updates until this one. I liked it a lot. While naive people might think they was just another “look what drugs and unsafe sex (of any orientation) does” I saw a completely different thing had happened. Lance finally became the person he should have been all along. The interactions with his family, friends and pets clearly indicating he discovered something more important in life that whatever it was he had been searching for when younger.