I thought that was the reason why, and I thought I remembered the marriage

on _AfterMASH_ (though I think I was ten when that was on), so I

remembered.  As far as insanity, I have read a number of psychiatrists

saying the only reason homosexuality was taken off the books as a disorder

was because of the gay lobby, though there was strong evidence that it

shouldnot have been.  I wish I could remember the psychiatrist who wrote

that in a letter to the editor in _The Indianapolis Star_.  Farr called

Klinger a "silly fag" in the documentary _Making M*A*S*H_.

 

Scott

 

On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Kathleen Fitzpatrick wrote:

 

> At 12:54 PM -0400 3/2/98, Scott Hutchins wrote:

> >Jamie Farr said Klinger on _M*A*S*H_ was supposed to be a "silly fag," but

> >I didn't follow the show enough to know if the character was actually gay

> >or just liked to wear dresses.

>

> Actually, he was wearing dresses in order to get released from the army on

> a "section 8" -- the insanity discharge.  Klinger was never gay, at least

> in my recollection (he married a Korean woman in the last season of the

> show, and the two of them became the central characters of the blessedly

> short-lived "AfterMASH").  But it's nonetheless interesting to remember

> that cross-dressing, and thus, on some level, non-heterosexuality, was

> still in the late 1970s popularly encoded as insanity.

>

> Kathleen

>

> *********************

> Kathleen Fitzpatrick

> Department of English

> New York University

> [log in to unmask]

> *********************

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