Valerie Harper is longtime ally of gay community

Advocate.com posted its 2006 interview with Valerie Harper yesterday and it just made me love her all the more.

The television icon, who is battling terminal brain cancer, was part of an early gay storyline on The Mary Tyler Moore Show when her character of Rhoda Morgenstern went out on a date with the brother of her nemesis, Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman).

The brother turned out to be gay and Rhoda reveals it in brilliant fashion to Phyllis who had wanted the brother to date perfect Mary and not hang out with Rhoda.

‘I loved doing that episode,’ Valerie says. ‘When I tell Phyllis, she says, “Oh, what a relief!” Do you know, when I said that line “He’s gay,” we got the biggest laugh ever on the show? I mean, this was the ’70s, long before Will & Grace or Ellen; there really weren’t gay characters on television back then. The ­audience laughed and cheered for over a minute. They had to take most of the audience response out for the broadcast cut. It was amazing. That was an extremely well-written episode — we were blessed with brilliant writing on that show.’

Here is a LINK to that episode – the ‘He’s gay’ line comes near the end.

She knew from the start, back in 1970, that the gays connected with Rhoda who herself was in many ways an outsider.

Valerie recalls: ‘One of the earliest interviews I did about Rhoda was with [late author and AIDS activist] Vito Russo, who came to my dressing room to talk with me for The Advocate. My manager, who was gay, said, “Are you sure you want to do an interview for the gay press?” And I said, “Of course!” Vito was lovely — he had a star quality himself. We lost him way too soon. I’ve always felt very strongly about human rights, for blacks, women, and gays. Our Constitution is about equality for all — that’s got to mean something to all of us.’

Of the AIDS crisis she said: ‘I’ve always been so ­impressed with the way gays responded to that crisis in their community. They rallied the troops and protected the family. I think it’s ­incredible­.’