Mister Fred Rogers was a mentor and father-figure to Officer Clemmons in a lot of ways, so it was understandably difficult for Francois Clemmons to be told by Rogers he should stay in the closet.
The two were so close that Clemmons refers to Rogers as “the spiritual love of my life,” according to Entertainment Weekly. Clemmons reveals how Rogers handled the news of Clemmons being gay in the new memoir, Officer Clemmons. This is what Rogers allegedly told Clemmons.
“Franc, you have talents and gifts that set you apart and above the crowd,” Rogers said. “Someone informed us you were seen at the local gay bar downtown. Now, I want you to know, Franc, that if you’re gay, it doesn’t matter to me at all. Whatever you say and do is fine with me, but if you’re going to be on the show as an important member of the Neighborhood, you can’t be out as gay.”
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“I could have his friendship and fatherly love and relationship forever,” Clemmons reflected. “But I could have the job only if I stayed in the closet.” Rogers allegedly told him, “‘You must do this Francois,’ he told me, ‘because it threatens my dream.'”
Clemmons was gutted by Rogers’ ultimatum.
“I was destroyed,” Clemmons said. “The man who was killing me had also saved me. He was my executioner and deliverer. But, at the same time, I knew that he would know how to comfort me. I didn’t have another mother or father to comfort me. I had no one to go and be a boy with. I was just vulnerable. He got in a few slaps, some tough love, a good spanking.”
“The world doesn’t really want to know who you’re sleeping with — especially if it’s a man,'” Rogers said according to Clemmons. “’You can have it all if you can keep that part out of the limelight.’” Rogers suggested, “’Have you ever thought of getting married? People do make some compromises in life.’”
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Clemmons ultimately took Rogers advice and got married.
“By the time I left his office,” Clemmons writes in his memoir, “I had made up my mind to marry La-Tanya Mae Sheridan. At the wedding reception, Fred and Joanne approached me and my new wife. It felt as if Fred and I were sealing some kind of secret bargain.”
“Lord have mercy, yes, I forgive him,” Clemmons concluded. “More than that, I understand. I relied on the fact that this was his dream. He had worked so hard for it. I knew ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ was his whole life.”
Yet despite the life-changing advice, Clemmons always looked up to Rogers. “I didn’t know what I was so hungry for, until I heard Fred Rogers say, ‘I love you,’” Clemmons added. “When I was growing up, men were rough and macho — you had to be a ‘man.’ I didn’t fit any of that.”
“Fred never stopped listening and I never shut up,” Clemmons said. “He was the spiritual love of my life.”
