I remember what life was like before the World Wide Web took off, when people like Howard H. Smith and David J. Wright struggled to reach an audience — a marginalized audience that had no major media platforms at the time.

My father’s pioneering TV show, Howard and Dave: Man to Man, aired in Southern California and was the first commercially supported gay-talk show in the United States. It launched in 1991 and shut down in 1992. The culprit? High production costs and steep cable-access fees. 

In 46 installments, the show celebrated gay culture, heightened advocacy on political issues impacting the gay community, and spoke to people suffering from AIDS. What’s more, my father, Howard Smith, and my stepfather, David Wright, kissed on air, showing their audience that #LoveConquersHate more than three decades before that idea took root in our culture.

In 1994, my father died of AIDS-related causes. Would his show have drawn more support and reached more people if it could have streamed online and taken advantage of everything the Web has to offer? For that matter, how much more quickly would the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights have blossomed and gained political traction? How many heartbreaks for same-sex couples could have been avoided?

Having open access to the Internet — and that means equal access, free from discrimination and corporate gatekeeping —is vital to ensuring that everyone can amplify their voices online and find community. That’s why I work to bring more resources to Free Press, which has been fighting for more than a decade for our rights to connect and communicate. Click here to fund the fight.

Check out the earlier posts in our “Why We Fight” series:

Why I Fight: For Racial Justice

Why I Fight: To Preserve the Internet’s Level Playing Field

Original photo by Flickr user Flats