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Two gay Apache helipter pilots have married what is believed to be the first active-duty same-sex weddg at Wt Pot ary amy.

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I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK

After beg oted om the U.S. ary for beg gay, she beme an early fighter for gay rights and a proment figure the nascent L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. * gay army pilot *

Ary for beg gay, she beme an early fighter for gay rights and a proment figure the nascent L. Rights Vcenz rryg a plard prottg the ary’s ban on gay people while picketg the Pentagon July 1965.

Her discharge om the ary over her homosexualy had turned her to an Tob/The New York Public LibraryPublished July 19, 2023Updated July 23, 2023Lilli Vcenz, who beme a gay rights activist the hhed, reprsive era before the Stonewall rebelln of 1969, when such a ncept srcely existed, makg a mark as a newspaper edor, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist voted to L.

She was ath, at a re facily, was nfirmed by a niece, Julia Bo, who did not specify a Vcenz’s journey to promence the nascent gay rights movement of the mid-1960s began after a personal llisn wh tolerance. In 1963, she was servg the Women’s Army Corps when a roommate outed her as gay, leadg to her discharge after only ne months took that rejectn as an opportuny to beg a fight agast jtice that would gui her for s.

RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN

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“After leavg the WAC, ” she said an terview wh the se Gay Today, “I actually felt ee to be me.

THE FILM PUT DON’T WANT THE WORLD TO SEE: FIREBIRD, A GAY LOVE STORY ABOUT FIGHTER PILOTS

One of Naval Aviatn's few openly gay pilots is leavg his ary reer behd after only six years, cg harassment as the reason. * gay army pilot *

Vicenz beme, by most acunts, the first lbian to picket the Whe Hoe support of equal rights for gay people as a member of the Mattache Society of Washgton, an early gay rights prott — the first of s kd, acrdg to the Library of Congrs — and others that followed were small but brought visibily to a movement s fancy. ” she told Gay Today about her early efforts wh the society.

“Be wh gay people, help the movement, help unmask the li beg told about , rrect the notn of homosexualy as a sickns and prent as is, a betiful way to love. Vcenz beme the edor of the Mattache Society’s monthly newsletter, The Homosexual Cizen. In 1969, she and another activist, Nancy Tucker, spun off a newspaper of their own, The Gay Bla, which beme the Washgton Bla, the untry’s olst L.

Vcenz beme the first out lbian to appear on the ver of a natnal gay magaze, The Ladr, a publitn produced by the untry’s first lbian-rights group, the Dghters of Bilis, acrdg to a retrospective on her life and reer by Lillian Farman, a historian of lbian and gay her scbbed, all-Amerin looks, Dr. Vcenz looked like “every mother’s dream dghter, ” as Barbara Gtgs, The Ladr’s edor, put Vcenz also ntributed to the e on the other si of a mera, makg two 16-limeter films that were later hailed as signifint artifacts of the early gay rights first, tled “The Send-Largt Mory, ” documents a Mattache Society prott ont of Inpennce Hall Philalphia on July 4, morn ey, the black-and-whe film, roughly seven mut, seems anythg but seismic. “The whole notn of gay people publicly exprsg their sentiments that fashn was beyond nceptualizatn until we started dog , ” the Mattache Society’s -founr, Frankl E.

THE GAY ARMY HELIPTER PILOTS JT MARRIED AT WT POT

”Her send film, “Gay and Proud, ” documented the Christopher Street Liberatn Day Para 1970, a memoratn of the first anniversary of the Stonewall uprisg Manhattan. The uprisg, after a police raid at Stonewall Inn, a gay bar Greenwich Village, was a turng pot the gay rights movement.

'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT

“Gay and Proud” shows a much larger, and shaggier, gatherg of protters takg a more ant stance the para, chantg fiantly and wavg plards wh msag like “I am a lbian and I am betiful. ”In addn to providg a “val piece of gay history, ” Ms. Vcenz’s films “gave visual documentatn of the astonishg distance that the gay movement had traveled between 1968 and 1970.

“I fd a privilege to work wh gay people, ” she PrsLilli Marie Vcenz was born Hamburg, Germany, on Sept.

J., Vcenz regnized her sexualy early on, she said a 2008 terview, and “ beme paful after a while to realize that I was gay and I didn’t know anyone else who was gay. But after a stt as an edor the book publishg dtry, she cid to jo the Army, part bee she had heard was “a hotbed of gay people, ” acrdg to Ms. Farman’s putative hotbed, however, had a policy banng gay people om service, and she was thrown out while trag as a nropsychiatric technician at the Walter Reed ary hospal the 1970s, Dr.

OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAVG NAVY AFTER HARASSMENT

Vcenz ran a weekly discsn ssn lled the Gay Women’s Open Hoe, which functned as a marketplace of ias and sanctuary of sorts for lbians the Washgton area.

Vcenz cid to take a more timate approach to helpg gay people their stggl.

“I fd a privilege to work wh gay people who are, general, so much more urageo, novative and open to new ias than the average straight person, ” she told Gay Today. It was Washgton — not Bethda, Md., where is we handle rrectnsA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 20 of the New York edn wh the headle: Lilli Vcenz, a Trailblazer the Gay Rights Movement, Di at 85. But as a gay man, I have been fightg my whole life to enjoy the very privileg I am entled to as both a beholr and protector of them.

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'I Don't Feel Part Of The Milary Anymore': Openly Gay Pilot Leav After Harassment : NPR .

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