Travis squadron manr reflects on reer as officer, gay man > Travis Air Force Base > Display

Contents:

• OPENLY GAY AIR FORCE MAND CHIEF AT RAMSTE LENDS VOICE OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE FOR PRI MONTH
• TRAVIS SQUADRON MANR REFLECTS ON REER AS OFFICER, GAY MAN
• MY BIG GAY AIR FORCE LIFE
• THE FIRST OPENLY GAY U.S. AIR FORCE AMY COMMANDANT
• OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT
• GAY AIR FORCE PILOT REACH DEAL ON DISCHARGE
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• AS DADT ENDS, GAY OFFICER SHEDS HIS ALIAS
• AIR FORCE BOOTS THEIR 25 MILLN DOLLAR AVIATOR (HE'S GAY) VIDEO
• WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB

OPENLY GAY AIR FORCE MAND CHIEF AT RAMSTE LENDS VOICE OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE FOR PRI MONTH

Ten years after the ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy began to phase out, gay and lbian Airmen say there’s more the Department of the Air Force n do to support the LGBTQ muny. 22, 2010, Print Barack Obama signed legislatn that led to the repeal of DADT, which for nearly two s blocked openly gay personnel om servg the ary. Several gay and lbian Airmen who spoke to Air Force Magaze said they have bee better wgmen sce the fall of DADT, and are optimistic about a ary where the LGBT muny is better reprented and accepted.

TRAVIS SQUADRON MANR REFLECTS ON REER AS OFFICER, GAY MAN

Some wish the ary health re system was better attuned to the needs of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer personnel, rangg om HIV preventn and treatment to pregnancy issu. Perhaps the most notable high-rankg gay ary official recent history is Eric Fanng, print and chief executive officer of the Aerospace Indtri Associatn. Fanng, a former Army Secretary and Actg Air Force Secretary, is the only openly gay person to have held senr posns the Army, Air Force, and Navy, as well as the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

“You uldn’t get a clearance if you were gay until 1998, ” said Le Schlsener, print of the advocy group Out Natnal Secury and a former speechwrer to Defense Secretari om 2012 to 2017. Airmen praised openly gay learship at their lol uns but worried that Air Force efforts to embrace diversy promotns will lead to tokenism. Pri month was created 1999 by Print Bill Clton to regnize the gay and lbian muny and has sce been expand to clu the bisexual and transgenr muny.

MY BIG GAY AIR FORCE LIFE

Grisham hop his experience of servg the Air Force for more than 20 years as a gay airman n reassure and spire other LGBTQ ary personnel. Until 2011, when the repeal of the ary’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy took effect, openly gay and lbian people were barred om servg the U.

THE FIRST OPENLY GAY U.S. AIR FORCE AMY COMMANDANT

That morng, however, he was a gay man who no longer had to nceal his inty thanks to the repeal of the ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which barred lbians, gays and bisexuals om servg openly the Uned Stat ary. At the close of a meetg that morng, Hickey said a chief master sergeant told atten, “Remember everyone, now you have to treat the gays right.

“But then, as my troops approach me and tell me how grateful they were to have a gay officer the squadron, over time, I realized the importance for people who are gay the ary to have somebody that looks like or reprents them the same way as other mory groups. So this is the film for all the gays fantasizg after watchg Top Gun - prr to this one the gayt air force movie ever, even though they hid the subtext well.

Michelle Johnson’s e-mail to staff, obtaed by the Colorado Sprgs Inpennt, pats a picture of an acplished officer — the former vice manr of the 59th Bomb Wg and wg manr of the 2nd Bomb Wg, wh experience flyg at least a half-dozen different typ of ary aircraft cludg the B-2 Spir stealth is standard, Johnson left Goodw’s personal life out of the bgraphy, although is signifint, as Goodw will be the first openly gay mandant at the amy.

OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT

The 2010 repeal the Clton-era “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” paved the way to allowg gay members of all branch to marry their partners and extend ary benefs to their fai and allow them to live on ’s likely that Goodw would rather be known for her acplishments as an officer, and for her upg tenure as mandant to be fed by the learship she provis ts, than her personal life. Neverthels, ’s not signifint that Goodw land this specific Air Force Amy has equently been embroiled ntroversi over accatns that senr lears there have built a zy relatnship wh fundamentalist Christian groups which have tried to dissemate anti-gay doctr at the ’s also relevant that the Air Force Amy is suated jt outsi Colorado Sprgs, which is home to more than 100 evangelil groups cludg Foc on the Fay, a proment anti-LGBT polil lobby anizatn.

Army photoCase pot, when the Army Tim published the headle that Eric Fanng was the first openly gay person to serve as actg secretary of the U. However, while atten were generally upbeat and optimistic about the future, they weren’t shy about discsg what they saw as ridual homophobia that hadn’t ught up wh the change Sgt. Joe Carrillo, an fantry bat veteran and openly gay soldier, told War Is Borg that a “generatnal gap” led some senr officers to see the prence of gay troops as a disptive new cultural fad.

GAY AIR FORCE PILOT REACH DEAL ON DISCHARGE

Print Donald Tmp — spe voicg his opposn to gay marriage — was mostly ambivalent on the mpaign trail about gays the ary and don’t seem to have strong feelgs on the issue. Mike Pence is outspoken about his belief that gay people are immoral, a harbger of “societal llapse” and that their existence threatens tradnal nuclear ’s fense secretary Jim Mattis had exprsed disfort wh repealg DADT, particularly when he was an active duty Mare. But by the time of his nfirmatn hearg January 2017, his views seemed to have New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand prsed Mattis on the future of gay troops the ary, his reply was “ankly senator, I’ve never red about two nsentg adults and who they go to bed wh.

Air Force to temporarily block his discharge unr the "don't ask, don't tell" law that bars openly gay and lbian ary members om ary Servicemembers Legal Defense Network says an agreement reached feral urt Monday prevents the Air Force om dischargg Lt. The servicemembers advocy group, which seeks equal treatment of gays the ary, is reprentg Fehrenbach his legal fight to keep his job and filed a feral lawsu on his behalf last se was filed Idaho, where Fehrenbach is statned at the Mounta Home Air Force Base, and asked for a temporary rtrag orr to stop the Air Force om dischargg Fehrenbach until a full hearg n be schled. Fehrenbach, who has been rated for his bat valor Iraq, disclosed he was gay 2008 as he fend himself agast allegatns vtigated by the Boise Police Department that he sexually asslted another man.

Fehrenbach said he had sex wh the man, but was was cleared of the rape allegatns, cludg by the Air Force Office of Special Invtigatns, which found them to be whout mer, acrdg to urt he still fac oter om the ary unr the "don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibs the ary om askg about the sexual orientatn of service members but requir discharge of those who acknowledge beg gay or are disvered to be engagg homosexual U. In July, lawyers for a GOP gay rights anizatn, the Log Cab Republins, asked a feral judge California durg a two-week trial to issue an junctn haltg the ary's ban on openly gay members. 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.

AS DADT ENDS, GAY OFFICER SHEDS HIS ALIAS

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. 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. 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.

(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. 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.

AIR FORCE BOOTS THEIR 25 MILLN DOLLAR AVIATOR (HE'S GAY) VIDEO

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. 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.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENOLA GAY AFTER IT DROPPED THE ATOMIC BOMB

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. 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. "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. A month later he was lled to see his battaln manr and told that the vtigatn had been closed: "His words were ’We found no proof of homosexualy.

"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. 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.