Sábado Gigante, the longest running television program of all time, has announced that the Latin American variety show behemoth will end its spectacular commercial run in September. The show, which debuted Aug. 8, 1962 as Show Dominical (“Sunday’s Show”) and left an indelible impression on millions of Latin Americans across multiple generations, will also leave behind an unlikely legacy: a surprisingly pro-LGBTQ stance.
The show, which combined skits, song and dance and interviews, tackled some important issues within the LGBTQ community with a non-judgmental and supportive attitude that helped move the dial forward for a largely Roman Catholic audience. In a retrospective, Fusion.net looks at some of the moments that helped cement the show’s legacy.
“A lot of us have to learn how to conduct the interviews, give it the correct treatment, accept this in our families,” Don Francisco, the iconic 74-year-old host, said in an interview in 2013. “We also need this to be accepted in our audience without them feeling offended,” Don Francisco said.
In 2010, the year that the Ninth Circuit Federal Court struck down the ban on same-sex marriage in California, Sábado Gigante hosted a debate on the subject. The debate also included a short interview with an audience member who was raised by two lesbians. “The homophobia was the worst. I had a teacher in religion who told me that a heart surgery that I had was a result of me inheriting my mother’s sin,” Ada Alvares told Don Francisco.
Then in 2011, the year that Mexico City legalized same-sex marriage, couple David Gonzáles and Jaime López, Mexico’s first same-sex couple appeared on the show. The interview included conversations about coming out and family rejection and how Gonzáles and López argued just like any other married couple. It included questions that likely challenged many viewers throughout Latin America. “I came out of the closet at the age of 35 just because of the fear of coming out,” Gonzales told Don Francisco as he held his partner’s hand. “To start with, it’s difficult to face family rejection. [When people come out] there’s a lot of family rejection,” Gonzales went on to say.
Then, again in 2013, Francisco hosted the openly lesbian beauty queen contestant Karina Hermosillo. “I was raised in a Mexican household that was very Catholic and I would tell myself that I had to get this out of my head,” Hermosillo told Don Francisco.
The show occasionally appeared to satisfy more conservative elements in the audience. It once had a segment on ex-homosexuals and featured a man who believed he was “cured” of his homosexuality.
