"And Now For Something Completely Different"

After writing and thinking too much about Ken Mehlman yesterday, we had to take a long, hot shower and try to somehow, get clean again. And after writing about someone who represents the worst of the gay community, we decided to redeem ourselves today by writing about someone who represents the best.

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And who better to represent the gay community and the ideal of gay marriage than the two men who first publicly ventured down that path over twenty years ago, Bob Paris and Rod Jackson.

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Bob Paris was a well known bodybuilder in the 1970's and 80's, winning the title of Mr. Universe in 1983. In the bodybuilding world, he was a rock star. Meanwhile, his boyfriend, Rod Jackson, was doing some modeling, eventually appearing in Playgirl Magazine. Bob came out to the public in 1989 in an interview with Ironman Magazine, and then, later that year, did the unthinkable. He and Rod "married" in a commitment ceremony in a Unitarian Church, even taking each other's names as Bob and Rod Jackson-Paris.

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Okay, so if you're under 40, you're saying, "so what?". You have to understand that, first of all, to come out publicly as gay in the 1980's was almost never done, especially for a celebrity or someone in the public eye. Many gay people in the 1980's were still deeply closeted. But to get married to someone of the same sex in the 1980's was UNHEARD of. It just wasn't done. Bob and Rod quickly started appearing on the t.v. talk show circuit, i.e. Donahue, Joan Rivers, and even Oprah Winfrey, where many viewed them as circus freaks.


But here's what made their story so compelling for straight America at the time. At this point, if straight America ever thought about gay people at all, they still thought of them as effeminate, prancing, lisping sissy boys. It was a commonly held belief that if you were masculine, you couldn't possibly be gay. So along comes these two huge, muscular, very masculine men who are not only gay, but openly affectionate toward each other. Simply put, it was shocking to see that in 1989.

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Bob and Rod quickly became celebrities, appearing on t.v., on stage and began busy careers as writers and public speakers. They shot two photography books with famed photographers Tom Bianchi, "Bob and Rod", and Herb Ritts, "Duo". But to be so open in 1989 and the early 90's was not without its consequences. Bob and Rod still suffered a lot of verbal abuse everywhere they went, and the public scrutiny which comes with fame eventually helped to lead to the couple's split in 1995.

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Bob and his current spouse, Brian, live in Vancouver. They began dating in 1996, and were legally married after Canada made gay marriage legal in 2003. Bob continues to write, speak and act. He appeared most recently on the t.v. show, "Defying Gravity" in 2009. Unfortunately, we can't find any trace of Rod Jackson's current whereabouts. We know he's out there somewhere, but we don't know where, or what he's doing.

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So our hats are off to Bob and Rod, and what they did for the gay community. They crushed stereotypes, they broke down barriers, and they made being gay in America a little easier for all of us. They deserve a huge thanks, and have deservedly earned a place in American history as real heroes.