On December 11, 1973, gay rights activist Mark Segal interrupts Walter Cronkite’s live broadcast of the “CBS Evening News” in New York City by sitting on Cronkite’s desk with a sign that says “Gays Protest CBS Prejudice.” His objection to the network’s biased coverage of queer people reaches millions of Americans, and helps change Cronkite’s reporting on gay rights.
In the early 1970s, Segal was part of the Gay Raiders, an activist group that staged direct actions called “zaps.” In one zap, Segal danced with his friend and fellow activist Sage Powell on “Summertime at the Pier,” an “American Bandstand”-like show filmed in Atlantic City, before the crew kicked the two men out of the studio for dancing together on camera. Segal also interrupted a live broadcast of “The Mike Douglas Show” by chanting, “Two, Four, Six, Eight: Gay is just as good as straight.”
When Segal crashed Walter Cronkite’s nightly news program, he sat right on Cronkite’s desk and held up his sign for the cameras, which broadcast Segal’s message to more than 30 million viewers. The network quickly cut the feed, and crew members grabbed Segal, wrapped him with cable wire and took him out of the studio.
Authorities charged Segal with trespassing and fined him $450, but Cronkite arranged a meeting for Segal at CBS where he could discuss his complaints about the network’s biased coverage of queer people.
On May 6, 1974, Cronkite reported a segment about gay rights on the “CBS Evening News.” The segment highlighted that multiple U.S. cities had recently passed gay rights legislation, and that the New York City Council would soon vote on a gay rights bill it had previously rejected.
“Part of the new morality of the ’60s and ’70s is a new attitude toward homosexuality,” Cronkite reported. “The homosexual men and women have organized to fight for acceptance and respectability. They’ve succeeded in winning equal rights under the law in many communities. But in the nation’s biggest city, the fight goes on.”
