US Navy lnch ship named for gay rights activist Harvey Milk | CNN

Contents:

• THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK
• US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK
• NAVY YEOMAN REMEMBERS HIS TIME AS A GAY SERVICEMAN THE 'DON'T ASK DON'T TELL' ERA
• SO ANY GAY GUYS WHO HAVE BEEN THE MILARY OR NAVY POST HERE?
• 'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT
• NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK

Navy has lnched and christened a ship named for the sla gay rights lear Harvey Milk, who served the Navy durg the Korean War but was discharged after beg qutned about his sexual orientatn. Namg the ship after an in of the LGBTQ rights movement reprents a symbolic tone for the ary followg a long history which gay service members were unable to serve openly. In this April 1977 file photo, San Francis supervisor Harvey Milk ss the mayor's office durg the signg of the cy's gay rights bill San Francis.

The Navy is namg a ship honor of the late gay rights lear, who served the Navy for four years before he began a reer San Francis cy ernment. In 1977, after his Navy reer, Milk beme the first openly gay elected official California when he won a seat on the San Francis Board of Supervisors. A Navy ship named for gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who was ma to rign om the force bee of his sexual orientatn, was lnched San Diego Saturday.

US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK

Milk served the Navy as a divg officer durg the Korean War, at a time when gay service members were not allowed to openly acknowledge their sexualy.

NAVY YEOMAN REMEMBERS HIS TIME AS A GAY SERVICEMAN THE 'DON'T ASK DON'T TELL' ERA

Durg his time as a divg stctor San Diego, California, the 1950s, his supervisors ught him at a park popular wh gay men, acrdg to his nephew Stuart Milk. While servg as a cy supervisor, Milk troduced legislatn to protect the gay muny, cludg a gay rights ordance 1978 to ban discrimatn agast LGBTQ hog or employment. 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.1.

SO ANY GAY GUYS WHO HAVE BEEN THE MILARY OR NAVY POST HERE?

"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." But when the tag team prevailed, they unrtimated the ristance to such a reform om a aln of social nservativ, relig groups, and a large part of the ary self. The nsequence, the followg year, was a msy kd of promise that beme lloquially known as "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell." 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.

I have seen happen: ’If you don’t do this, I’m gog to report you.’ "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.

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

It’s really jt ’You do not meet standards.’ Wh five days, out the door."Air Force #2 (senr airman, three years): "No one at my job would ever, ever spect that I was gay at all. You’re a Mare, you don’t md gettg dirty, gog out to the field and not showerg for weeks at a time...and, if you were gay, when you have to shower wh all the other guys you’d get all exced.

Nobody wants to adm that they have gone to war wh gay people."Air Force #3 (pta, eleven years): "You n be upset about a lot of thgs—you n be upset that the law was what was. 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?’ I hadn’t even joed the ary yet, and here he had asked me!

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 man.When Alva signed up, before "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," he had to lie on his paperwork.

NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

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.Meanwhile, the media picked up on his story. 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.) This eveng, two arrive wh their boyiends.

To be the ary and still try to live any kd of life as a gay man, ’s not easy.Air Force #4 (senr airman, four years): "Right now our relatnships don’t exist."Air Force #3: "I’ve had three ployments [while] wh the same person.

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."Before his own experience turned ugly, Rocha was exactly the kd of ialistic, motivated rec the ary mt wish for.