For context, Fred revised the original lyrics to make it clear his song was not some sort of anthem for anti-trans bigotry.
Fred went down in history as one of the very few people to employ and encourage homosexuals in his era* - an era in which this sort of thing was career suicide. His costar François Clemmons was both black and gay, in a time when being either meant you were either not allowed on TV or tight-cast in very specific roles.
As it relates to sexuality, in Fred's own words "Well, you know, I must be right smack in the middle. Because I have found women attractive, and I have found men attractive.”
Fred is not the macho hetero binary role model you hope him to be. Is it too much to ask that we stop perverting history for the sake of a cheap gibe?
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*I'll add the disclaimer that Fred encouraged François to marry a woman and appear straight to be more socially acceptable - in François's own words:
“Franc, you have talents and gifts that set you apart and above the crowd,” Rogers told him, Clemmons writes in his memoir. “Someone has informed us that you were seen at the local gay bar downtown. Now, I want you to know, Franc, that if you’re gay, it doesn’t matter to me at all. Whatever you say and do is fine with me, but if you’re going to be on the show as an important member of the Neighborhood, you can’t be out as gay.”
Clemmons tells PEOPLE that he began to sob. “I could have his friendship and fatherly love and relationship forever,” Clemmons remembers today. “But I could have the job only if I stayed in the closet.”
He had given Clemmons inspiration and stardom but told him there was a cost. “ ‘You must do this Francois,’ he told me, ‘because it threatens my dream.’ ”
Though it is worth remembering that in the early 1970s, with civil rights barely a few years old and gay rights decades in the future, this was very much the norm.
Another quote:
"Rogers evidently believed Clemmons would tank his career had he come out as a gay man in the late 1960s. But — and this is a crucial point —Rogers later revised his counsel to his younger friend. As countless gays came out more publicly following the Stonewall uprising, Rogers even urged Clemmons to enter into a longterm and stable gay relationship. And he always warmly welcomed Clemmons’ gay friends whenever they visited the television set in Pittsburgh."
Healthy people learn and grow.