Navy yeoman remembers his time as a gay serviceman the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' era : NPR

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. 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. 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.

US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY 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. "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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

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.

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." Eventually the events—tails of which are still disputed by other participants—me to light a broar vtigatn; s aftermath one of the senr officers beg held rponsible—a woman who happened to be Rocha’s bt iend the un—mted suici. 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.