In an article late last month we shared This Man Won Almost $100K On Jeopardy And Mentioned His Husband While Doing It, we were witness to a guy just sharing that he's in love with another guy on national television.
Big deal? Oh, we think so. We used to be the butt of the jokes. Who we are and what we did in the bedroom was laughable. It's easier to laugh things off than accept them.
In 2010 Movieline named Ray on SCRABBLE in the 1980s as one of the 5 weirdest contestants in the history of gameshows. In 2012 AfterElton announced the top 10 best gay moments in the history of game shows–#1 was Charles Nelson Reilly, #2 Paul Lynde and #3–Terry Ray's appearance on SCRABBLE. – Terry Ray
Who was #2? If you have forgotten who Paul Lynde is, here's a compilation of some of his most memorable appearances in the center of Hollywood Squares. We loved the question about the fairies.
Before we get to Steve Harvey, let's look at previous example of a gay man stating who he is, and it was even on Family Feud, just down under.
This is a hilarious piece of blooper footage from the late 1970s on a game show "Family Feud" hosted by Tony Barber. Tony Barber asks one of the contestants if he has a boyfriend unwittingly when he was meaning to ask if he has a girlfriend, Tony then apologizes and gives himself a moment to get himself together and asks if he has a girlfriend and the contestant says "no I'm gay" and he and the his team have a good laugh. Hahahahahahaha that was classic!!!!! Poor Tony lol. – oldtvhistory
Related Post: Connections Between TV Game Shows And Growing Up Gay? Louis Virtel Shares 'Our' Childhood.
So here is the Steve Harvey / Family Feud clip that is making the rounds now.
Did Steve know about the contestant's response before hand? Maybe, I mean they do vet contestants, looking for interesting facts to pull out to get a laugh or attention or ratings. And if he didn't know, the reaction was … well, what do you think about the reaction?
After looking at all of these other examples from 10 to 20 years ago, why is Harvey reacting this way? Has he returned to the old ways, using the LGBT lifestyle as a gag?
How does Steve feel about gay men? In an E-News post titled Steve Harvey's Most Controversial Moments they share:
On Gay Men – During an appearance on The View, he said, "There isn't a real man living that can live without one of you. He does not exist. We have to have you." Of course, this sparked the panel of hosts to ask about gay men, to which Harvey responded, "Real men…" before he was cut-off and corrected that gay men are "real men," too. – EOnline.com
The recent clip of Harvey's Family Feud was funny, a good laugh, and has us LGBT peeps out in the open as real human beings and parts of families. It's a good thing. But why did he look dumbfounded / a deer in headlights? Why not a high five? Or a congratulatory hand shake? Oh well, next time we guess.
He had a positive moment when the Kenworthy family was on his show (Gus Kenworthy Plays 'Celebrity Famiy Feud' For LGBT Youth Charity), where he could not believe that LGBT kids were kicked out of their homes. He states that he would never stop loving his kids, because they are his kids.
We'll leave you with a final and funny clip.
I've Got A Secret – With all members of the cast supposedly gay (Frank DeCaro, Suzanne Westenhoefer, Jermaine Taylor and Billy Bean) and even the host, the surprise guest happened to be Martha Wash. – Myles Miller