ORLANDO, Fla. ― Soon after the mass shooting as Pulse nightclub, another dark chapter in Florida gay history is getting a national showcase.
“The Committee,” a documentary about politics and homosexuality, will air on more than 70 public TV stations across the country, including WUCF. It airs locally at 10 p.m. Monday, June 20.
The movie was made at the University of Central Florida by Lisa Mills, a film professor; fellow director Robert Cassanello, a history professor; and 15 of their students.
“It is for us and for the students a way to share nationally what we feel is an extremely important story of discrimination by our state lawmakers,” Mills said.
The film explains how the Florida Legislative Investigative Committee in the late 1950s and early 1960s conducted a witch hunt against college students and faculty members at the state’s public universities. Hundreds were interrogated about their sexual orientation. More than 200 lost their jobs or were expelled, but Mills adds that it isn’t clear exactly how many people dropped out or quit because of the intimidation.
“One clear message as a historian speaks to me,” Cassanello said. “You have to contemplate the decisions you make today because future generations will judge you.”
The panel was known as the Johns Committee because Florida Sen. Charley Johns, a former governor, was the chairman. It wanted to root out communism and initially tried to discredit the NAACP, which was well organized. Then the panel’s focus shifted to the gay community.
