St. Louis Public Radio's video: Richard Eaton on the contrast between gay life now and in the 1960s

We talked with Eaton as part of our look at a documentary filmmaker who’s bringing to life St. Louis’ gay history thanks to some home videos from the 1940s. Read more here: http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/couldn-t-believe-i-was-seeing-it-home-movies-offer-rare-glimpse-gay-life-st-louis-1945 Richard Eaton was a boy in the 1940s and came of age not long thereafter, when his relationships were taboo. He and his husband, John Durnell, became one of the first four gay couples married in St. Louis, Missouri. Transcription: “I was never really a person who was what we might consider to be ‘out’ in public education, out as a gay person. I played the same role, I played the standard straight role all the time. I dated females, I did not date males in public but I did date females in public. Until there came a time when I really just stopped doing that. “I’ve been in this relationship for 42 years. We were married after 39. I figured that’s all that would be to it. That we would have our own relationship, a private one; that people knew that we were together; that we had a relationship; that we were in love. We never knew that we would be able to have some of the other straight individuals would have when they were married. “John and I have talked about it a number of times, which is how wonderful it is that we are married, and everybody knows it, and we don’t have to hide anything, and we can be ourselves.”