While LGBT people in America are still on a high from the marriage equality victory at the Supreme Court, Yahoo! Screen has released the 30-minute Uniquely Nasty, which is a stark reminder that for a very long time the US Government had a singularly unpleasant history when it came to the treatment of gay people.
The doc starts out with the fairly recent but also largely forgotten fact that George W. Bush started his presidential campaign with a seemingly progressive stance towards gay rights, before taking a sharp right turn and leading a vehemently anti-gay administration. After that Uniquely Nasty looks back to the past, most particularly the gay witchhunts of the 1950s, where the McCarthyites went after ‘fags’ with as much – if not more – vigour as they did ‘commies’, indeed many seemed to think all gay were communists.
This utterly vociferous animus led to a concerted programme to remove LGBT from all government jobs, with everyone from teachers to congressmen knowing they could be outed and fired if there was even a hint about their sexuality. And at the time, people knowing they were gay could destroy your life more completely than getting fired.
Uniquely Nasty if a timely reminder of the past and what has brought us to the victories of today.
You can watch the full documentary below, which is well worth spending half an hour with, as it manages to be anger-inducing, shocking and at times surprisingly inspiring.
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