‹‹ Wish We Were Here

Wish We Were Here, Episode 4: Growing Up With Gay Parents in Colorado Springs

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49min 46sec
Credit Johnny Ryan

On this episode of Wish We Were Here, Producer Noel Black tells the story of a small community of kids who grew up in Colorado Springs with gay parents.

Jessica: The argument was, which is more harmful, a lesbian mother or a junkie father? I was subpoenaed to testify about my mom’s relationship.

It sounds archaic now to think of the courts equating lesbians with junkies, but the fact was: at the time, no one knew what effect being raised in a gay family might have on kids. Social Scientists were only just beginning to study the subject, and conversations about homosexuality were tainted by the charged rhetoric of the Culture Wars. By the time I was a teenager, the anti-gay activism sparked by Anita Bryant and Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority had reached a fever pitch, and it spilled more vocal homophobia in the culture at large.

Music in this episode was composed by Jake Brownell.

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