As "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to an end, we sent Chris Heath to terview dozens of gay servicemen om the past and prent to fd out what life was really like as Ameri's ary stggled wh s last great inty crisis
Contents:
GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
While the LGBT ary muny has seen creased reprentatn the past , stris are still beg ma to improve acceptance, tegratn and health for gay and transgenr service members. * gay forces *
Ary the past , stris are still beg ma to improve acceptance, tegratn and health for gay and transgenr service members. Today, gay and transgenr ary service members enjoy far more rights than they did even five years ago—but the fight ntu to crease visibily and acceptance for this group the armed forc. Department of Defense (DoD) releas a policy statg that “homosexualy is patible wh ary service.
1988: The rults of a jot report nducted by the DoD and the Defense Personnel Secury Rearch Edutn Center rerce the fdgs of a 1957 report claimg that gay and lbian dividuals enlisted the armed forc pose no signifint risk to secury (which had prevly been the ratnale for barrg gay dividuals om enlistg the ary).
1993: Print Bill Clton signs the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, barrg openly gay and lbian Amerin cizens om ary service—while prohibg harassment of all “closeted” ary service members. 2015: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announc that the Milary Equal Opportuny policy has been modified to clu gay and lbian service members.
TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
There's a way to burst through the shame gay men are ma to feel about homosexualy. * gay forces *
2016: The Senate nfirms Eric Fanng as secretary of the Army, makg him the first openly gay secretary of a U. As the only out young gay kid at my school, I took the advancement of my sexual experienc to my own hands and I did what we all do: I bought a fake ID and h the gay clubs.
While I knew wouldn’t be like a gay llege eroti I’d read on (gay non, really), I rather naively wasn’t expectg the fall out. I realize I fell to that old gay adage of placg my feelgs on a person who, for whatever reason, was never gog to vt them back me.
The Nazi regime rried out a mpaign agast male homosexualy and persecuted gay men between 1933 and 1945. * gay forces *
Worst of all, though, the shame attached to the memori of those first tim marred how I would approach sex for was listeng to Years & Years’ new song “Sanctify, ” and seeg the band’s out gay sger Olly Alexanr talk about how the song was spired his sexual trysts wh straight men, that I realized that the feelgs are way more mon than people let on.
Sure, I know all about gay guys havg sex wh straight guys, but felt reassurg to see him scribe the “sat and sner role” he embodied durg those experienc, and to hear the uncertaty and melancholy weaved to the than anythg though, was the repeated lyril mantra of “I won’t be ashamed. It is unclear how many of the men publicly or privately intified as gay or were part of gay muni and works that had been tablished Germany before the Nazi rise to power.