Tim Bagley exposes the discrimination that kept LGBTQ artists away from the iconic show
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Tim Bagley: A dream that could never be fulfilled
When Tim Bagley was rocking at the Groundlings in 1989, he was confident that Saturday Night Live would call him.
Many SNL careers began with this legendary comedy troupe, and Bagley was considered a great performer.
They were openly gay.
“I was out as a gay man and people knew they wouldn’t hire openly gay people,” he said. “Bagley recently revealed on SiriusXM’s Julia Cunningham Show.
The 67-year-old actor said directly about SNL boss Lorne Michaels and the late manager Bernie Brillstein: “They had a kind of rule that they didn’t hire gay people.”
There’s no security, no security.
Bagley, whose comic talent would later shine on shows like “Will & Grace” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” described how different things were at the time.
“The problem with getting out at that time was that there were no guardrails,” he explained.
“If someone didn’t have to put you on their show, they just didn’t have to. They weren’t trying to find LGBTQ people.”
Not just one story.
It turned out that Bagley’s experience was not alone. Comedian James Adomian told the Daily Beast in 2018 that despite auditioning several times in the early 2000s, he felt his sexuality prevented him from joining the cast.
“It certainly didn’t help that I was openly gay,” Adomian said simply. “I think Lorne Michaels is afraid of the fathers of America.”
The slow road to change
Despite his disappointment, Bagley acknowledges that SNL has evolved.
The show now has several prominent LGBTQ + cast members, including Emmy-nominated Bowen Yang and Kate McKinnon.
“It has taken a long time, but the SNL machine has changed or shifted a bit,” Baglay said.
Breaking barriers
Few people know that SNL’s first openly gay cast member joined in 1985.
Terry Sweeney made history when Michaels returned as executive producer after a five-year hiatus.
Kate McKinnon became the first openly lesbian cast member in 2012, followed by John Millhiser in 2013, and later Yang, Punky Johnson, and nonbinary performer Molly Kearney.
Yang’s rising star
Yang’s visit is particularly noteworthy. Yang, who became the show’s first Chinese American cast member the following year after debuting as a writer in 2018, created unforgettable characters like the iceberg that sank the Titanic and earned four Emmy nominations.
Bagley’s reveal offers an honest look at Hollywood’s not-so-distant past, reminding us how far we’ve come – and perhaps how much further we still have to go.