Sal Mineo: The First Gay Teenager

Sal Mineo's character in the 1955 teensploitation flick, "Rebel Without a Cause," is considered by many to be the first gay teenager in a motion picture. In a 1972 interview, Sal Mineo is one of the first actors to discuss his sexuality publicly, coming out as bisexual. In 1976, with Sal's career starting to turn around - thanks in part to the role of a bisexual burglar in the play "P.S. Your Cat is Dead" - he is murdered returning home from play rehearsals. Instead of finding Sal's killer, the police focus instead on Mineo's sex life. For all these reasons and more, I am working on "Sal Mineo: The First Gay Teenager" zine. It will focus on the largely forgotten contributions Sal Mineo made to the LGBTQ cause and I will cover the homophobia surrounding his death. I will be releasing this issue at the San Fernando Valley zine fest on September 29.