Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Selected article/71

The Rejected (1961) is a made-for-television documentary film about homosexuality, produced for KQED in San Francisco by John W. Reavis. The Rejected was the first documentary program on homosexuality broadcast on American television. It initially ran on KQED on September 11, 1961, and was later syndicated to National Educational Television (NET) stations across the country. The Rejected received positive critical reviews upon airing. Reavis, an independent producer who was apparently unconnected to the homophile movement, wrote up his idea for The Rejected in 1960. Reavis originally titled the documentary The Gay Ones. He explained his goals for the program in his proposal:

"The object of the program will be to present as objective analysis of the subject as possible, without being overly clinical. The questions will be basic ones: who are the gay ones, how did they become gay, how do they live in a heterosexual society, what treatment is there by medicine or psychotherapy, how are they treated by society, and how would they like to be treated?" (more...)