Gays the Milary | Public Death, Private Life: Army Major Alan Rogers and the Washgton Post

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI
• GAYS THE MILARY
• MILARY SERVICE EXPERIENC AND REASONS FOR SERVICE SEPARATN AMONG LBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL DIVIDUALS A LARGE ARY HORT

I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.

In rponse, and apparently to monstrate his petency his assigned posn, the nonmissned officer had taken upon himself to approach the person he nsired cled toward mtg a siar offense the future: me, the only openly gay soldier my un. Together we approached our un’s learship, where she sisted that the ments had stemmed om the reprentative’s own homophobic feelgs and remend that he be reprimand and removed om his posn as the un’s sexual harassment watchdog.

HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI

But by then was hard to ignore the anxiety I felt durg required social activi — “mandatory fun, ” as ’s lled the ary — or the tensn om my fellow moment I cid to bee a soldier and the moment I chose to live openly as a gay man occurred so closely time that ’s hard to remember which me first. It was still four months before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell, ” a double-edged policy prohibg askg any service member about his or her sexualy while enforcg a ban on openly gay service members. A uple were more elaborate: tailed scriptns of what might happen to me if I was ught alone, and proclamatns about the wrongns of gays the ary.

GAYS THE MILARY

There are moments when feels wrong to claim my stat as a veteran; as if beg gay ma me ls of a soldier and somehow validated my service. Every memory evok an emotn: rage that I had to serve wh a nstant sense of fear of my fellow soldiers; paralyzg sadns for those who endured ab worse than I n know; and, the worst, guilt over the service members — gay or straight or transgenr — who died while servg the ary while my body is still whole. It’s only been five years sce Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed, fally allowg gays, lbians and bisexual people to openly serve the ary.

But spe attempts to ban gay service members and to stamp out all evince of homosexualy the armed forc, the ary’s persecutn didn’t keep same-sex sire the closet. It wasn’t until around the time of Word War I that the ia of excludg soldiers for beg gay, stead of jt punishg those who engaged homosexual acts, began to circulate.

MILARY SERVICE EXPERIENC AND REASONS FOR SERVICE SEPARATN AMONG LBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL DIVIDUALS A LARGE ARY HORT

This change – punishg people for their gay inty as opposed to punishg people for same-sex nduct – was led by velopments psychiatry at the time, which st homosexualy as a mental illns. While soldiers would eventually be punished jt for beg gay, was still much easier for ary officials to expel gay service members if they had proof of gay sex takg place.

Durg one famo purge at a naval base Newport, Rho Island, Navy officials 1919 persuad enlisted men to entrap and sce spected gay sailors so they uld “obta rmatn and evince pertag to cksuckers and rectum receivers” that would be ed to urt martial and discharge gay sailors.

Ary has a ep history of rejectg gay troops var ways, s polici om World War II particular stand out creatg a tangible impact on sexual inty Ameri. Though they had to nceal their sexualy om draft boards, many gay service members had their first gay experience while servg durg World War II.