Search form

Scroll To Top
Celebs

Watch Jane Fonda Show Herself as LGBTQ+ Ally in 1970s Video

Early Jane Fonda interview shows the actor and activist was an LGBTQ+ ally back when it wasn't popular to do so.

She's long stood up and spoken out for our community.

A recently resurfaced video from 1979 shows actor and activist Jane Fonda was an early LGBTQ+ ally. In the video, Fonda offered praise and support for the LGBTQ+ community, especially in San Francisco.

"Culturally, psychologically, economically, politically - gays and lesbians are discriminated against," Fonda told an unidentified interviewer. "They are a very powerful movement, especially in San Fransisco, they don't need me, but they like me, they like our organisation, the Campaign for Economic Democracy, because they know that working together we can be stronger than either entity is by itself."

When asked if she was being used by the local community, she emphatically said she hoped she was being used.

"What am I here for if not to be used by good people for good things?" explained the two-time Oscar winner. "I'm part of an organization and you could also be cynical as you are and ask me isn't the organization using me?

The actress added what mattered was why and how she was being used, whether it was "for greed or selfish reasons."

Fonda was recently in the news for her vocal support of using preferred personal pronouns and the importance of allyship with the LGBTQ+ community.

"I've been working with really young people," Fonda revealed. "When you meet them, they give the pronouns that they go by. I'm going on 83. Do I really have to say what pronouns I go by, you know? The answer is yes and there's a learning curve."

The resurfaced interview took place in 1979, a particularly tumultuous and historic period for San Francisco and the burgeoning LGBTQ+ movement. Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone had been shot and killed by disgruntled former Supervisor George White. A former police officer, White was acquitted on the serious charges of murder due to a famed "Twinkie defense," claiming his state of mind was unduly impacted by the consumption of junk food. The city rose up that evening with the largest civil disturbance in years known as the White Riots.

The old interview has been circulating on Twitter. Milena, told Yahoo that she reshared the video to Twitter because of Fonda's recentstatement about pronouns.

""I was also reading her book and thinking about how she was one of the only famous people who called out our homophobic president [Jair Bolsonaro]," she told the outlet."Since most celebrities only think about the USA, and I just had to post it cause I felt like reminding people of how amazing she is."

RELATED | If Jane Fonda Can Correctly Use Pronouns, So Can You

30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff and Wayne Brady

From our Sponsors

Most Popular

Latest Stories

Donald Padgett