"Comg Out Unr Fire": The Story of Gay and Lbian Servicemembers | The Natnal WWII Mm | New Orleans

Contents:

• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI
• GAY VIETNAM: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??
• GAY SERGEANT CHALLENG THE AIR FORCE

"COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS

The 1994 documentary Comg Out Unr Fire giv voice to the experienc of thoands of gay and lbian servicemembers who joed the ary durg World War II, a story that is largely ignored by historians and mms across the untry. The day Larry Sanrs registered for the draft, one qutn buried the middle of a long qutnnaire smacked him the face: “Do you intify as a homosexual or ever had sexual feelgs for persons of the same sex? "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.

And therefore few people realized that the first Amerin serly wound the vasn of Iraq durg the send Gulf war was a gay Alva signed up, before "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, " he had to lie on his paperwork. 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. 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.

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 . 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.

A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER

"JM: "I found out right after the war that if someone were discharged as homosexual, a notice of that fact was sent home to their lol draft board, so that their whole muny would e to know that they were gay. And this led directly to the formatn of gay ghettos the major ci, where people who uldn’t go home, bee their sexualy had been revealed by the army, had to move to Greenwich Village or the San Francis Castro.

Manzella operated fully wh the vtigatn; when he was asked for evince that he wasn’t jt claimg to be gay orr to trigger a discharge, he even supplied photos, and footage of him and his boyiend passnately kissg on a road trip. "While he was ployed, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a mpaigng group who had been givg him guidance, told him that 60 Mut wanted to do a piece about an openly gay man servg a bat zone, persuadg him that would give a voice to the "65, 000 men and women the ary" who weren’t able to live as openly as he was. I was nfed until beme clear that, partly by chance and partly by a cha of personal remendatns over the years, this trailer park had bee some kd of gay-veteran hot spot: There are eight or ten others livg here, and more nearby.

’ The CO looked at my iend and said, ’If somebody wants to get off my ship for beg gay, they have to e to me wh two Polaroids, both of them they have to be clearly suckg ck, and I want to be able to see their face. In June 1998, Richard Merrt (Mar, 1985–98) appeared on the ver of The New York Tim Magaze, uniform but wh his face obscured, and si the story scribed what life was actually like for someone gay servg the ary. ’" The way he sometim jtified to himself what he did was that was a rponse to the ary’s homophobia, albe an extreme one: "I would feel very angry at the policy, and beme ’Well, fuck you, Mare Corps—I’m gog to do this and be as gay as I want to be for the world to see.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

"Navy #3: "Nobody joed up to be ’the un gay guy, ’ but that’s who you’re gog to be, and I thk ’s cumbent on who are senr to basilly intify ourselv so that younger kids n look and say, ’Hey, is okay. Some likely post-repeal plitns: ristant pockets of homophobia the ary; the ntued right to voice certa homophobic sentiments unr, for stance, the eedom of relig exprsn; possible aternizatn charg if gay servicemen of different ranks ntue to associate wh each other as they often did the silent years; growg disquiet at the absence of partner rights equivalent to those for servicemen’s wiv.

Although McIvery, a member of the Gay Liberatn Front, had checked the “homosexual tennci” box on his pre-ductn medil form and stated verbally that he was gay, he was nohels classified as 1-A (available for ary service).

HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI

At the same time, some men who did not otherwise nsir themselv to be gay succsfully exploed the homosexualy exemptn an attempt to avoid service, often by tentnally adoptg stereotypil mannerisms that they believed would persua doctors.

GAY VIETNAM: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??

At the time of McIvery’s se, the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual-II still listed homosexualy as a mental disorr, although would soon be removed after a ntroversial battle at the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn. Although many gay rights anizatns argued that the excln of homosexuals om the armed forc was unnstutnal and discrimatory, several of the same groups also offered advice to gay men who wanted to be disqualified om ary service. 4 As Jt David Suran has shown, members of newer, more radil anizatns such as the Gay Liberatn Front saw antiwar ristance and draft ristance as much as part of their polil platform as more tradnal gay rights issu.

In the reprsive atmosphere of the 1950's, discharg for homosexualy soared; at the height of the Vietnam War, when recment driv were at their peak, enforcement was ary tradn of keepg out homosexuals uld end on July 15, when Print Clton has said he will lift the ban. Pentagon officials, who had been notably relcrant operatg wh the plan, said last week that they are shg through several studi to addrs key matters like thgs have stood, homosexuals uld serve so long as they uld hi. In the 1940's, if somethg untoward occurred, was ascribed to "emergency" or "privatn" homosexualy, acrdg to John Costello "Virtue Unr Fire, " a 1985 study of changg sexual mor brought about by World War II.

" He said that the armed forc' culture of strict disciple is, fact, uniquely sued to ntrol the behavr of both homosexuals and the heterosexuals who might bash them -- more so than civilian Shilts, the thor of "Conduct Unbeg, " a new history of homosexualy the ary, pots to the armed forc' polici on AIDS to illtrate how well the four servic n pe wh thorny problems when they mt. As early as 1941, the psychiatrist William Mennger scribed the typil soldier's wartime relatnship as one of "disguised and sublimated homosexualy, " a theme given voice the popular war song, "My Buddy": "I miss your voice and the touch of your hand, my buddy. Wh those fears ntralized and the relatnships the e of celebratn, the ary beme a safe place for the emotnal timacy so pellg to men and women facg the chaos and terror of om a distance, the logic of the ary's nial of homosexualy the ranks was simple: as long as no homosexuals were enlisted, soldiers uld play at beg lovers (and even nsummate the rol) whout ever havg to acknowledge those feelgs.

GAY SERGEANT CHALLENG THE AIR FORCE

They argue that the relative openns of gay and lbian relatnships the ary World War II eventually led to those veterans settlg port ci like San Francis and New York where, for the first time, they tablished intifiable subcultur. 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. To speed up the procs of dischargg gay service members, draft boards started to screen for spected homosexuals and issue them “blue discharg, ” which were named for the lor of paper that homosexual dismissals were prted on.

Doctors also asked spected homosexuals on how they felt when engaged the “applitn of the mouth to the sexual an” of another guy, theorizg “te homosexuals” gave so many blowjobs they’d report they felt pleasure their mouth while their penis remaed flaccid durg fellat. Hormone tts were also troduced unr the theory that gay men would have more trogen and ls androgen than straight men, but the practice was abandoned bee rrelatg hormone levels wh sexual orientatn was “too uncerta and too expensive to try on every ductee, ” acrdg to a 1947 Newsweek article. “In fact, the army had a sense enuraged homosexualy by makg men aware of their sexual orientatn, ” wrote sexologist Vern Bullough, who noted that the war allowed gay soldiers to meet other gay people while also wnsg their heterosexual peers practice suatnal homosexualy, which led many to nclu their same-sex behavr wasn’t all that unual.

And terviews wh homosexual service members, journalist Randy Shilts found the prevalence of lbians the ary beme a self-fulfillg prophecy, as some lbians joed the ary primarily bee they expected to fd other lbians there. After fightg discrimatn, and fdg others who shared their sexual orientatn, gay and lbian soldiers me back to the stat wh a more ncrete sense of their inty and new expectatns for their civilian liv, Bébé wrote. This new sense of inty spired some gay and lbian vets to publicly exprs their persecutn as a discrimated-agast mory group hop that would lead to reformed ary polici and social chang the broar Amerin society.