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:
- 'WE TOOK CARE OF EACH OTHER': A MARIME UNN'S HIDN HISTORY OF GAY-STRAIGHT AND INTERRACIAL SOLIDARY
- TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
'WE TOOK CARE OF EACH OTHER': A MARIME UNN'S HIDN HISTORY OF GAY-STRAIGHT AND INTERRACIAL SOLIDARY
Des before the morn LGBTQ+ movement, a small but ant unn of marime workers on the Wt Coast wh openly gay members and lears ed a slogan lkg discrimatn agast gay men, racial discrimatn, and red-bag. For the better part of two s, the Mare Cooks and Stewards Unn fought discrimatn on the ships where s members worked and * gay merchant marine *
Des before the morn LGBTQ+ movement, a small but ant unn of marime workers on the Wt Coast wh openly gay members and lears ed a slogan lkg discrimatn agast gay men, racial discrimatn, and red-bag. And although a high percentage of the oks and stewards were “queens, ” as gay men preferred to ll themselv at the time, the unn rarely if ever stood up for them when they were tnted—or “queen-baed”—by straight workers.
Bébé relat, “The sults keep g, but the gay stewards are gettg bolr bee they know their unn is watchg their backs. ” Stephen “Mickey” Blair, a whe, gay MCS member told Bébé, “Mare Cooks and Stewards took the digny that was each of and built up, so you uld get up the morng and say to yourself ‘I n make through this day. Many of the new members were gay men who want to serve their untry the fight agast fascism but had been kicked out of the ary for their sexual orientatn.
TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
Other unns ed homophobia and racism, as well as red-bag, to try to stroy the MCS. “The most important thg was not that we had gays. This article draws heavily on My Dire for History: Essays Gay, Communy, and Labor History, a posthumo llectn of Bébé’s says published 2011.
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. Life Today as a Gay ServicemanHow we got here: In 1992, many people thought that the discrimatn was nearly over.
"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.