The Lone Ranger: Gay?

[miss landers]

I grew up with "The Lone Ranger" TV series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. I just saw the hour long origin episode (1949). Here's a quick outline: Jack Reid is a Texas Ranger. He and several other Rangers are ambushed in a lonely canyon by the Cavendish Gang. All the Rangers except Reid are slain. Reid has been seriously wounded and left for dead, but he is still alive when an Indian named Tonto finds him hours after the ambush. Tonto nurses Reid back to health by a shady pool in the canyon. Reid decides to become a masked frontier crime fighter called "The Lone Ranger" with Tonto riding at his side.

The origin episode caused me to wonder if The Lone Ranger and Tonto were gay. (Now please, don't get all feisty because I said "gay." Some people are gay and that's life in the real world.)

Anyway, Reid apparently didn't have a love life per se when he rode into the canyon with his comrades and was shot: he recovered and rode out of the canyon as The Lone Ranger with nary a glance over his shoulder at his former life and whatever (or whoever) it may have held.

A flashback incident suggested to me the seeds of love were planted early between Reid and Tonto: Reid (as a youth) found Tonto barely alive after Tonto's people had been slaughtered in a tribal war. Reid carefully and tenderly nursed Tonto back to health; Tonto never forgot Reid's kindness.

After the Cavendish ambush, Reid became The Lone Ranger with Tonto as his constant and almost worshipful companion. Neither of the men had any female consorts (girlfriends, wives) in the series as far as I recollect. The two men spent their time in each other's company 24/7 and this is why I wonder if they were gay. Both men were virile, manly, and rugged; they lived intense outdoor lives; they enjoyed a very close friendship; surely they needed some sort of intimate physical contact in their daily lives.

Does anyone have any thoughts, opinions, information, insights? This is a serious question; I am writing an article for future publication. My time is precious (and your time is precious as well) so please don't write simply to bash gay men, make crude jokes, or to state your religious beliefs. Thanks!

[miss landers]

ORIGINAL POST: Do you remember the popular 1950s TV series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels called "The Lone Ranger"? I just saw the hour long "origin of" episode (1949). Here's a quick outline of that episode:

Jack Reid is a Texas Ranger. He and several other Rangers are ambushed in a canyon by the Cavendish Gang. All the Rangers except Reid are slain. Reid is wounded and left for dead, but he is still alive when an Indian named Tonto finds him hours after the ambush. Tonto nurses Reid back to health in the canyon. Back on his feet, Reid becomes a masked crime fighter on the frontier called The Lone Ranger. The faithful Tonto rides at his side.

The "origin of" episode caused me to wonder if The Lone Ranger and Tonto were gay. Reid apparently didn't have a love life per se when he rode into the canyon with his comrades and was shot: he left the canyon after several days of recuperation as The Lone Ranger - with nary a glance over his shoulder at his past life as Jack Reid, Texas Ranger and whatever (or whoever) may have been a part of that past life.

A flashback incident suggested to me the seeds of man to man love were planted early between Reid and Tonto: Reid (as a youth) found Tonto near death after Tonto's people had been slaughtered in a tribal war. Reid tenderly nursed Tonto back to health; Tonto placed a ring upon Reid's finger when they parted. Tonto found the ring on a cord around Reid's neck when he discovered him wounded in the canyon and it was thus that Tonto identified the man he had known so many years before. (The incident of the ring speaks volumes to me because the ring is the traditional symbol of complete love in western culture - of complete and enduring spiritual, emotional, and physical love.)

After the Cavendish ambush, Reid became The Lone Ranger with Tonto as his worshipful companion. The two men were together 24/7 riding the rangelands fighting crime. Neither of the men had any female consorts (girlfriends, wives, prostitutes) in the "origin of" episode or in the series as far as I recollect. Both men were virile, manly, and rugged; they lived intense outdoor lives; they enjoyed a very close friendship that many would admire and envy. Their relationship was certainly homosocial and possibly homoerotic as well. But surely such vital, dynamic men needed some sort of intimate physical contact in their daily lives and their relationship was not simply homosocial and/or homoerotic in the final analysis. I suggest their relationship was homosexual. I suggest they "went all the way."

Does anyone have any thoughts, opinions, information, insights? This is a serious question; I am writing an article for future publication. My time is precious (and your time is precious as well) so please don't write simply to bash gay men, make crude jokes, or to state your religious beliefs. Thanks!

CONCLUSIONS: Some have suggested that unless the author/creator suggests a character is gay we cannot assume a character is gay. But what we cannot assume is that because the writer did NOT specifically state that the character(s) were gay that they were positively, unquestionably, irrevocably straight.

We routinely make educated guesses about Shakespeare's characters without asking the poet to so state that a particular character is straight, gay, or bisexual. We make inferences, educated guesses from the accumulation of evidence presented by the poet. That's all we can do. Some wonder if Iago in "Othello" is gay and cite certain passages in the play. Others have suggested that Antonio in "Twelfth Night" is gay and cite particular passages. Shakespeare did not specifically state that either character was gay but readers today weigh the accumulated evidence in the play to make some educated guesses about the sexuality of both characters. I have done so in my assessment of the TV series "The Lone Ranger." I admit readily that my interpretation stated here of "The Lone Ranger" is based on what I perceive to be the evidence of gay sexuality in the "origin of" episode of "The Lone Ranger."

Neither The Lone Ranger nor Tonto appear to have any interest in females. And there's the rub; there's what leads one to wonder about their sexualities. We cannot assume that they are straight. Somemight say that because they don't appear to have any specific gay mannerisms or sterotypical characteristics, we perhaps cannot assume that they are gay either. So they don't march in a gay pride parade or hang out in a gay campground ... that isn't enough evidence to assume they are straight. We may wonder if they may be more or less asexual - that is, they have no physical interest in either males or females, they have no adult sexuality. Perhaps they have pre-pubertal, undeveloped sexualities. But it is too hard to believe that these two vital, dynamic adult men have pre-pubertal, undeveloped sexualities. The desire for sexual contact makes us human. We must believe these two men desire some sort of physical contact with another human being that satisfies certain natural, basic, animal, primitive needs and urges. Otherwise the characters are absurd.

We should keep in mind that The Lone Ranger and Tonto spent 24/7 in each other's company with little inclination to do otherwise. This speaks volumes to me. Neither seemed to have any interest in women, in settling down or in becoming family men. What sort of message do you suppose their preferences for bachelorhood and rootlessness sends to the viewers? How can we believe a man is heterosexual if he prefers to spend his life on horseback traveling from place to place, doesn't seek the company of women, and sleeps under the stars with another man?

Look carefully at Tonto and his place in the scheme of things in the "origin of" episode. Tonto is firmly cast in the "female" role. He is passive; he does not initiate action. He unquestioningly supports The Lone Ranger's decisions, obligingly runs errands, and dutifully nurses the wounded. He is routinely put down by "real" men with epithets like Injun or redskin - just as "real" men traditionally put down and control women with epithets like babe or girl, and put down and control young men with epithets like boy.

The Lone Ranger however takes the "male" role; he initiates action, he gives orders, he makes decisions, he takes the hard work upon himself. There is a subtle message here about the relationship between the two men - about their male and female roles - and their passive and active sexual roles in their relationship.

If indeed a homosexual relationship existed between the Lone Ranger and Tonto (and I contend that we are to believe that such a relationship did indeed exist) then that relationship could not be explicitly stated or played out on the screen of 1950s TV. In my estimation, the two main characters were quietly defined for the knowing viewers as male and female, man and wife - and this sort of relationship was exactly how American society perceived homosexuals during the early fifties. It was believed then that one partner in a homosexual relationship consistently took the female role and the other partner the male role - that one partner was "the penetrated" and one partner was "the penetrator." I contend that beliefs about homosexual relationships current in the early fifties colored and were the foundation of the relationship between The Lone Ranger and Tonto in the TV series.

HISTORICAL NOTE: The Lone Ranger and Tonto lived in a time and place that quietly condoned and encouraged physical relationships of an intimate nature between men.

Situational homosexuality was practiced in the old West simply because females were few and far between. For ranch hands and cowboys, the nearest females (aside from the rancher's wife and daughters who were strictly off limits) could be as much as 50 miles away from their place of employment. The old West was the world of wide open spaces. Much too much space for the average ranch hand or the cowboy to ride into town every night for female companionship. Ranch hands and cowboys were often too young, too financially strapped, too adventurous, and too uneducated to have girlfriends or wives. So how do you think cowboys and ranch hands satisfied their physical urges and sexual needs? If you answered "with each other" you are correct.

It's a well known fact that trail bosses encouraged their hands to pair off with one another at the beginning of long, womenless cattle drives for the sole purpose of satisfying their natural physical desires and needs.

Additionally, men of the old West were not hampered in their physical expression for one another or in satisfying their physical desires by the strictures of an omnipotent socio-religious establishment. Religion only marginally existed on the frontier and the lusting men of the West simply scoffed at any attempts from the establishment to control their physical desires or activities.

Such was the historical milieu from whence came The Lone Ranger and Tonto. In my final assessment, there was little reason for the Lone Ranger and Tonto to deny their physical needs or desires for one another - in light of the fact that the fulfillment of such desires was not rigorously suppressed in the old West but rather quietly condoned, encouraged, understood, and accepted. The old West was quietly gay-friendly; homosexuality was OK as long as it didn't frighten the horses. The Lone Ranger and Tonto were gay and their loving, mutually consenting, enduring and ennobling relationship was the hallmark of the show. We can believe both men were better for knowing and loving the other.

[Superstar]

You posted this in 4 different forums

[Michael [hXc]]

who honestly gives a **** if the lone ranger is gay. he's a TV character and i'm sure he wasn't. back then nobody ever would have thought of that like they do now.

[*MIBabe03*]

Originally Posted by *AgEnT FaLLoN*

who honestly gives a **** if the lone ranger is gay. he's a TV character and i'm sure he wasn't. back then nobody ever would have thought of that like they do now.

Yeah I agree.

[miss landers]

Originally Posted by *AgEnT FaLLoN*

who honestly gives a **** if the lone ranger is gay. he's a TV character and i'm sure he wasn't. back then nobody ever would have thought of that like they do now.

My question was meant to be taken seriously and if taking my question seriously and giving it a thoughtful answer is something you cannot do, you're not required to respond. There are many gay and lesbian people viewing the boards at Sitcoms Online. Gay and lesbians have just as much right to view and enjoy Sitcoms Online as anyone else. And they have the right to view and enjoy the boards without being harassed about their orientations. Please keep your impatience, dismissiveness, and negativity about gay and lesbian peoples to yourself.

[TJL]

It's an ineresting question...

You can make the same observation about Batman and Robin - two men who were always at each others side, etc...
I don't think the Lone Ranger and Tonto were gay, though. For many years it was standard for the tv hero to have a sidekick, and 99.9% of the time it was another man.

[Michael [hXc]]

Originally Posted by miss landers

My question was meant to be taken seriously and if taking my question seriously and giving it a thoughtful answer is something you cannot do, you're not required to respond. There are many gay and lesbian people viewing the boards at Sitcoms Online. Gay and lesbians have just as much right to view and enjoy Sitcoms Online as anyone else. And they have the right to view and enjoy the boards without being harassed about their orientations. Please keep your impatience, dismissiveness, and negativity about gay and lesbian peoples to yourself.

negativity, dismissiveness, and impatience about gays and lesbians? all i'm saying is WHO CARES if a TV character is gay. it's just a CHARACTER and that's how they are supposed to portray them. back then nobody thought of "omg people might think the Lone Ranger is gay." just sit back and enjoy the show instead of worrying who's gay and who isn't. i have a lot of tolerance for gay people because they are just like everyone else. but to go around judging who's gay and who isn't (which you're doing), that is just wrong.

[Janice]

Miss Landers stated that she's writing an article on this topic. Her post is very respectful, and she isn't judging anyone. You know, I'm sick and tired of everytime someone mentions the word "gay", they have a mob all over them. It seems to me that unless you're gay or an outspoken defender of gays, you can't use the word around here without being attacked.

I'm tired of all the lectures and sob stories about being persecuted as a gay person. Before anyone goes off on me, I've got nothing against gay people WHATSOEVER. They are no better or worse than other people.

I thought that gay people wanted to get to a time and place where they can be mentioned casually without a controversy. Miss Landers does not deserve to be accused of judging anyone. She simply brought up a topic. Nobody's bashing anyone. Toughen up.

[TJL]

Originally Posted by Janice

Miss Landers stated that she's writing an article on this topic. Her post is very respectful, and she isn't judging anyone. You know, I'm sick and tired of everytime someone mentions the word "gay", they have a mob all over them. It seems to me that unless you're gay or an outspoken defender of gays, you can't use the word around here without being attacked.

I'm tired of all the lectures and sob stories about being persecuted as a gay person. Before anyone goes off on me, I've got nothing gay people WHATSOEVER. They are no better or worse than other people.

I thought that gay people wanted to get to a time and place where they can be mentioned casually without a controversy. Miss Landers does not deserve to be accused of judging anyone. She simply brought up a topic. Nobody's bashing anyone. Toughen up.

I agree Janice.

I saw nothing wrong with the question, it's an interesting question, so I gave my answer.

[Hollow]

Originally Posted by Janice

Miss Landers stated that she's writing an article on this topic. Her post is very respectful, and she isn't judging anyone. You know, I'm sick and tired of everytime someone mentions the word "gay", they have a mob all over them. It seems to me that unless you're gay or an outspoken defender of gays, you can't use the word around here without being attacked.

I'm tired of all the lectures and sob stories about being persecuted as a gay person. Before anyone goes off on me, I've got nothing gay people WHATSOEVER. They are no better or worse than other people.

I thought that gay people wanted to get to a time and place where they can be mentioned casually without a controversy. Miss Landers does not deserve to be accused of judging anyone. She simply brought up a topic. Nobody's bashing anyone. Toughen up.

Exactly what i'm thinking. There's nothing wrong with this thread. The "in the closet" thread on the music board is so damn ridiculous. they're bringing bullying and suicide into it. it's to post your opinions and theories, not to make fun of anyone for being gay.

[Hollow]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

I had no idea we had any gays or lesbians - why don't you PM everyone the names.

That, however, would be a bit disrespectful.

[Janice]

Originally Posted by miss landers

Do you remember "The Lone Ranger" TV series starring Clayton Moore and....

Here's a comphrensive list of gay characters on televison that may be helpful for your article. There is a subtle reference to The Lone Ranger.

And Batman and Robin.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~wyatt/t...ters.html#star

[Georgia's on my Mind]

Originally Posted by Janice

Miss Landers stated that she's writing an article on this topic. Her post is very respectful, and she isn't judging anyone. You know, I'm sick and tired of everytime someone mentions the word "gay", they have a mob all over them. It seems to me that unless you're gay or an outspoken defender of gays, you can't use the word around here without being attacked.

I'm tired of all the lectures and sob stories about being persecuted as a gay person. Before anyone goes off on me, I've got nothing gay people WHATSOEVER. They are no better or worse than other people.

I thought that gay people wanted to get to a time and place where they can be mentioned casually without a controversy. Miss Landers does not deserve to be accused of judging anyone. She simply brought up a topic. Nobody's bashing anyone. Toughen up.

You are in need of a reality check.

[bandito]

Originally Posted by Georgia's on my Mind

You are in need of a reality check.

You are in need of a banning.