All Hail (Maybe) Bisexual Icon Mister Rogers!
We already know that Mister Rogers was everyone’s friend, but now we’re hearing that there’s a chance Judy was listed as a “friend” in his little black book. The Fred Rogers documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, didn’t touch on the possibility that the tip of his Mr. McFeely got wet for poon AND peen. But François Clemmons, who played Officer Clemmons and is gay, said that Mister Rogers accepted him even though Mister Rogers told him to never be seen at a gay club because gay-hating sponsors could drop the show. Now, thanks to book YouTuber Cece Ewing, we all know that there may have been a chance that Mister Rogers was hitting up the gay club in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe with his hag Lady Elaine Fairchilde.
Cece Ewing tweeted that she was having a talk with her grandma about Mister Rogers, and her lesbian mind blew across the room when her grandma said, “Did you know Mister Rogers was bisexual?” Cece’s memaw watched Won’t You Be My Neighbor, and then read Maxwell King’s The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers.
After she watched the new documentary, she read the Mr. Roger’s biography. Apparently he never used the word, but in an interview where he was asked if he was gay he said something like “I’m not gay, but I suppose if you look at attraction as a kind of line…
— ProblemsofaBookNerd (@CeceEwing_) March 3, 2019
The Good Neighbor came out in September 2018, and so it took this goddamn long for someone to find that bisexual gem, which makes sense we no reed buucs no moor. Twitter user Meandering Hermit found the excerpt and tweeted it. One of Mister Rogers’ gay friends, a Dr. William Hirsch, claims that during a conversation, he said that on the spectrum of sexuality, he lives right in the middle.
For everyone looking for a citation, it's in "The Good Neighbor" by King. Screenshot from Google books. pic.twitter.com/XMQxYwPUCX
— Meandering Hermit (@GabrielLunesce) March 5, 2019
It’s going to be another six months before someone skims through the book to see if there’s anything about if Mister Rogers ever got with a dude, and then tweets about it. Mister Rogers was married to Joanne Byrd from 1952 until his death in 2003.
Sadly for humanity, Mister Rogers is not here to comment on this and all of the other things we need his thoughts on (read: EVERYTHING). But for now I will join the rest of the LGBTQ community in screaming, “WE’LL TAKE HIM!,” and also, whenever I hear Mister Rogers singing, “It’s such a happy feeling you’re growing inside,” my mind is going to go to a completely different place.
Pic: PBS