WASHINGTON -- Sce Maj. Gen. Tammy Smh, the ary’s hight-rankg openly gay officer, me out 2012, she has tried beg an example of livg...
Contents:
- ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
- I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
- US ARY LIFTS BAN ON OPENLY GAY TROOPS
- THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ARMY SECRETARY U.S. HISTORY
ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
* openly gay us military *
Tammy Smh, the ary’s hight-rankg openly gay officer, me out 2012, she has tried beg an example of livg thentilly while also beg a bean of visibily to other Soldiers and their fai. The policy banned lbians, gay men and bisexuals om servg the ary. It terrified her to e out as gay such a public way, but she felt a rponsibily to do , she said.
I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
As difficult as was for her, g out publicly as gay “may not have been as easy for someone who was at a lower rank, ” Smh said an terview last week.
US ARY LIFTS BAN ON OPENLY GAY TROOPS
“When I me durg the 80s, thgs were different for women and gay people, and now 2021, the societal l are different aga. “People mt fd fort and ph back some of that ternalized homophobia, and build a b on the journey between hont and thentic.
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.
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.
THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ARMY SECRETARY U.S. HISTORY
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.
Mike and Abe were to mentor me on how to survive as a gay serviceman. As long as gay soldiers kept their mouths shut, the burn of proof fell on those makg the accatns. 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.
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.