Openly Gay Pilot Leavg Navy After Harassment | KPBS Public Media

Contents:

• THE GAY-FRIENDLIT AIRL THE SKI
• DO YOU EVER SEE GAY PILOTS?
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
• HOW THE GAY AIRLE STEWARD BEME A STEREOTYPE
• GAY COPILOT THE COCKP
• MARK MORRO DISCS THE STATE OF LGBTQ+ INCLN AVIATN AND HIS LEGACY AS AN OPENLY GAY AIRLE CEO AND INDTRY CHAIRMAN
• OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT
• OUT OF THE CLOSET AND ON TO THE NWAY: GAY PILOTS
• A GAY PILOT REFLECTS ON WHAT TRAVEL MEANS TO QUEER FOLKS

THE GAY-FRIENDLIT AIRL THE SKI

A very troublg vio has surfaced of an Amerin Airl pilot who abed his posn by foistg his Christian ttimony on a full plane, cludg graphic tails of sexual explos, his so-lled nversn om homosexualy, and even an exprsn of suicidal thoughts. For an explanatn of our Advertisg Policy, vis this recent years, many airl have woken up to the tth that our gay brothers and sisters are here, they're queer and they love to travel. As we wrap up Natnal LGBT Pri Month — and celebrate SCOTUS' momento lg for gay marriage —I'm takg an -pth look at which airl are showg their te rabow lors.

SAS is also a member of the Stockholm Gay and Lbian Network, and partners wh VisSwen the US, which promot Swen as a leadg LGBT urty of Leonard Zhovsky / ShutterstockDelta Air LNext on our list of fav is Delta: Not only has the airle been rporate a sponsor of and participant yearly Pri events ("NYC Pri, LA Pri, Utah Pri Ftival, Motor Cy Pri, Seattle PriFt, Tw Ci Pri, Atlanta Pri and Pri Toronto, among other ftivals"), but has proudly claimed s mment to LGBT employe as well:We are proud to have been signated one of the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) "Bt Plac To Work" for LGBT employe 2010 and 2011, and we ntue to earn near-perfect sr on HRC's Corporate Equaly Inx ever sce.

The airle was certaly ahead of the pack 2007 wh s Pk Flight, which featured a drag queen stewarss, pk airplane food and a shirtls petn on s way om SFO to the Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras the plane got primped! Photo urty of Peapple then 2010, an otherwise amg -flight safety vio featurg the All Blacks gby team had a weirdly homophobic moment (start at 2:55) that sparked enough plats to have the vio pulled.

DO YOU EVER SEE GAY PILOTS?

Among the are Athlete Ally, Boston Gay Men's Chos, Empire State Pri Agenda, Natnal Lbian & Gay Journalists Associatn, New York Cy Anti-Vlence Project, PFLAG NYC, Transgenr Legal Defense & Edutn Fund and pri celebratns at s foc ci Long Beach, CA and San Juan, Puerto Ri. Well I'm not a pilot (although I really wanted to be one when I was younger), but I am the gay grandson of a mercial pilot (Robson > Mohawk > Allegheny > USAIr) my pilot grandfather gay? I know a gay piedmont f/o he's not really flamboyant so you probably wouldn't know he was gay right away but, this guy may be one of the funnit mother*********s I have ever met.

A well known jokter at the pany (pretty senr pta) walked down to get on the plane for his next flight, and two openly gay pilots were walkg off the plane after their flight. 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.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

"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.

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. 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.

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

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.

HOW THE GAY AIRLE STEWARD BEME A STEREOTYPE

(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. 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.

GAY COPILOT THE COCKP

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.

MARK MORRO DISCS THE STATE OF LGBTQ+ INCLN AVIATN AND HIS LEGACY AS AN OPENLY GAY AIRLE CEO AND INDTRY CHAIRMAN

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.

OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT

"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. Manzella operated fully wh the vtigatn; when he was asked for evince that he wasn’t jt claimg to be gay orr to trigger a discharge, he even supplied photos, and footage of him and his boyiend passnately kissg on a road trip.

OUT OF THE CLOSET AND ON TO THE NWAY: GAY PILOTS

"While he was ployed, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a mpaigng group who had been givg him guidance, told him that 60 Mut wanted to do a piece about an openly gay man servg a bat zone, persuadg him that would give a voice to the "65, 000 men and women the ary" who weren’t able to live as openly as he was.

A GAY PILOT REFLECTS ON WHAT TRAVEL MEANS TO QUEER FOLKS

I was nfed until beme clear that, partly by chance and partly by a cha of personal remendatns over the years, this trailer park had bee some kd of gay-veteran hot spot: There are eight or ten others livg here, and more nearby. He says that he didn’t seek promotn past a certa pot bee would have required an vtigatn to get him clearance, and he was ncerned they would disver his subscriptns to gay magaz.

One Man’s Vietnam"Back the ’50s Oregon, " rells Tom Norton (Army, 1968-71), "they were still puttg people jail for homosexual activy, and that certaly sends a strong msage to a young kid. "Norton wasn’t sexually active Vietnam—"I would numb myself and avoid anythg sexual"—and was only years later that he realized that some of the men his social circle there were gay.

"Air Force #2: "There’s one good iend that I thought about tellg, but always right when I thk, ’Okay, ’s ol to tell him, ’ he’ll say somethg that is kd of weird about gay people.