Openly Gay Pilot Leavg Navy After Harassment | KPBS Public Media

Contents:

• THIS GAY MARE VET JT MA A MOVIE BASED ON HIS LIFE THE CORPS DURG 'DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL'
• GAY U.S. MARE DRAMA FROM NORMAN LEAR A GO AT NETFLIX
• GAY MAR, THEN AND NOW
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT
• GAY MARE KISS GO VIRAL
• NETFLIX ORRS GAY MARE DRAMEDY INSPIRED BY GREG COPE WHE MEMOIR, NORMAN LEAR TO PRODUCE
• THIS GAY MARE FELL LOVE WH NNG WHILE HE WAS STATNED IRAQ
• HOW IS A MARE BASE LIKE A GOTHIC NOVEL? ASK A ROXANE GAY-ANOTED BUT THOR
• ‘INSPECTN’ DIRECTOR LLS NEW MARE FILM THE ‘BLACK, GAY ROCKY’

THIS GAY MARE VET JT MA A MOVIE BASED ON HIS LIFE THE CORPS DURG 'DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL'

"The Inspectn" is a new feature about a young man who turns his life around the Mare Corps after beg kicked out of the hoe as a teen for beg gay and livg homels for several years.

Bratton lived on the streets for a after beg kicked out of the hoe for beg gay. The trailer for Bratton's film brgs a lot of the Mare Corps' re valu, so looks like we n expect a movie that portrays lead character Ellis French's ary experience a posive light spe of the herent problems a gay Mare would have faced that era.

GAY U.S. MARE DRAMA FROM NORMAN LEAR A GO AT NETFLIX

Netflix has greenl a seri — which unts the legendary Norman Lear among s executive producers — that will follow a gay teenager who enlists the U. The streamer has orred 10 episos of The Corps, a drama that will follows Cameron Cope (Mil Heizer), a bullied gay teen who jos the Mar wh his straight bt iend, Ray McCaffey (Liam Oh), 1990 — a pre-Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell era when beg gay the ary uld mean jail time or worse. Before "don't ask, don't tell" was officially repealed for gay, lbian, and bisexual ary personnel 2011, a photo of a male Mare drag uld have land him hot water.

"Lbian, gay, and bisexual ary personnel had been servg our untry for s whout receivg equal protectn, while transgenr troops are still prohibed om servg openly.

"As a gay man, I n relate to what is still the opprsive stigma of homosexualy.

GAY MAR, THEN AND NOW

He’s a gung ho, profsnal staff sergeant, and if I were forced to adm to anyone, he’s pretty damn ’s openly gay. The are the voic explag what has been like to be a gay man1 the Amerin ary over the prev seventy or so years, om World War II veterans their late eighti to young servicemen on active duty. Life Today as a Gay ServicemanHow we got here: In 1992, many people thought that the discrimatn was nearly over.

"I remember beg the Castro, " says John Forrett (army rerve, 1987–99), "and watchg the TV at a bar wh some iends, watchg Al Gore and Bill Clton swearg that if they beme the tag team for Ameri they were gog to get rid of the harassment of gays and lbians servg the ary. " Gay people were allowed the ary but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexualy; to facilate this, all members of the ary were also prohibed om quirg about anyone’s possible orientatn.

Gay people were only acceptable, effect, to the gree to which they uld succsfully masquera as nongay.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Seventeen years which gay servicemen have existed a paradoxil kd of herworld. Servicemen were advised that until then the policy would still apply, and that they uld potentially face s sanctns if they intify themselv publicly as gay. ’ "Air Force #1: "Two of my iends were disvered, both officers—’s a long and arduo procs for an officer to get kicked out for beg gay.

OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT

"Air Force #2 (senr airman, three years): "No one at my job would ever, ever spect that I was gay at all. And you’re good at your job—a gay person wouldn’t be good at his job, so obvly you’re not gay. You’re a Mare, you don’t md gettg dirty, gog out to the field and not showerg for weeks at a, if you were gay, when you have to shower wh all the other guys you’d get all exced.

You’re not gettg exced so you’re clearly not gay. I mean, if you want to hi, the Mare Corps is one of the bt plac to do that, bee nobody wants to adm they are standg next to a gay guy. Nobody wants to adm that they have gone to war wh gay people.

GAY MARE KISS GO VIRAL

I had ma about halfway through and the recer was trated wh how long was takg me, and he said, ’Well, basilly, are you gay?

One Man’s Operatn Iraqi FreedomMany gay servicemen the morn era—cludg Eric Alva (Mar, 1991–2004)—have pleted long ary reers whout their sexualy ever beg revealed. And therefore few people realized that the first Amerin serly wound the vasn of Iraq durg the send Gulf war was a gay Alva signed up, before "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, " he had to lie on his paperwork. Lbians have suffered unr the same prohibns and prejudic and share many of the same experienc, as well as some that are distct, but this article ncentrat on the experience of gay men.

And when, 2006, the battl over "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" the ary and gay marriage the wir muny were simmerg, Alva’s boyiend at the time poted out to him that he did have some notoriety that might be of e.

NETFLIX ORRS GAY MARE DRAMEDY INSPIRED BY GREG COPE WHE MEMOIR, NORMAN LEAR TO PRODUCE

The first Amerin jured the Iraq war is a gay Mare. For gay ary members who choose to do so, there has been the extra burn that their partners mt rema visible.

(The meetgs have been arranged through a private onle work lled OutServe, set up only last year, which allows gay and lbian servicepeople a safe and secure way of fdg and munitg wh one another. To be the ary and still try to live any kd of life as a gay man, ’s not Force #4 (senr airman, four years): "Right now our relatnships don’t exist.

THIS GAY MARE FELL LOVE WH NNG WHILE HE WAS STATNED IRAQ

In the shadow of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, " whenever gay servicemen did face any kd of homophobic harassment, they were powerls to draw attentn to whout potentially triggerg the end of their ary reer. The le self beme the very tool of their opprsn: "The ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, " says Joseph Rocha (navy, 2004–7), "punish homosexuals who ply, and protects bigots. Nothg to do wh the fact that I was gay.

But when you get ught up the ltle groups of boys, the first exce for anythg that don’t f wh them is that you’re gay. And I had too much pri to say that I wasn’t gay. Of a number of latg events—Rocha was also force-fed dog food and locked to a sh-filled dog kennel—the most abive and explicly homophobic was when he was orred by his manr to act a dog-trag scenar, repeated over and over so that every dog the un uld be n through .

Lovg so much that each scenar was gayer and more disgtg—the troductn of fake semen, that I would have to wipe my face, or that I would have to make slurpg nois. Anyone who gets off thkg that ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ unr the Bh admistratn anyone uld have gone and said, ’Hey, I’m beg antagonized unr the prciple that I might be gay’ and feel safe is absurd.

HOW IS A MARE BASE LIKE A GOTHIC NOVEL? ASK A ROXANE GAY-ANOTED BUT THOR

You would have to have no gay iends, no iends that knew you were gay, no iends who unrstood what was like to be you. Life Seventy Years Ago as a Gay Serviceman: World War IIIt was only really around the Send World War that ary discrimatn beme dified and anized, and that the foc moved om simply sanctns agast homosexual acts to an attempt to intify and weed out homosexual tennci—though, as would be seen aga and aga, when fightg bodi were need badly enough, such ncerns would often evaporate.

No space for homosexuals back then.

‘INSPECTN’ DIRECTOR LLS NEW MARE FILM THE ‘BLACK, GAY ROCKY’

’ "John McNeill, 85: "They were sperate need of more nnon fodr—they didn’t re whether we were gay or straight. "Edward Zasadil, 86: "I was not revealg my gayns to anybody.

There were the ual nasty remarks about gay people—’homos’ and whatnot. "JM: "I found out right after the war that if someone were discharged as homosexual, a notice of that fact was sent home to their lol draft board, so that their whole muny would e to know that they were gay. And this led directly to the formatn of gay ghettos the major ci, where people who uldn’t go home, bee their sexualy had been revealed by the army, had to move to Greenwich Village or the San Francis Castro.

This was the begng of the huge gay muni the major ci.