In U.S., Broad, Steady Support for Openly Gay Service Members

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• IN U.S., BROAD, STEADY SUPPORT FOR OPENLY GAY SERVICE MEMBERS
• HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI
• TAMMY SMH: FIRST OPENLY GAY U.S. GENERAL
• FEARS OF OPENLY GAY TROOPS WERE VASTLY OVERBLOWN: PENTAGON REPORT
• SERVG WH OPENLY GAY SOLDIERS AND SAILORS
• HOW GAY SOLDIERS SERVE OPENLY AROUND THE WORLD

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.

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.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

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.

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. ”A earlier, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” allowed gays and lbians to serve openly after centuri of hidg, persecutn and dishonorable, we salute some of the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer service members who paved the way for a more clive force. C., and the Stben Para, held each September down New York’s Fifth KamenyFrank Kameny Kennedy / Tribune News Service via Getty ImagOne of the Foundg Fathers of the morn gay rights movement, Frank Kameny enlisted the Army 1943, servg Europe throughout World War II.

After the war, he earned a doctorate at Harvard Universy and tght astronomy at Geetown Universy, In 1957, Kameny had jt started workg for the Army Map Service, wh hop of beg an astront, when he was termated after vtigators unvered evince he was a, then 32, appealed the firg, argug that flatly labelg gay people a secury risk was “no ls od than discrimatn based upon relig or racial grounds. The jtic refed to hear the appeal, but marked the first time the high urt even nsired a civil rights se based on sexual orientatn — and galvanized Kameny to beg a lifelong activist for equaly for gays and years later, 1965, Kameny, Kay Tob and Barbara Gtgs started the Annual Remrs, the first anized picket protts for gay rights Ameri, held at Philalphia’s Inpennce Hall.

RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN

In the 1970s, Kameny bee the first openly gay ndidate for Congrs and challenged the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s diagnosis of homosexualy as a mental disorr, acrdg to a 2015 Department of Labor 2009, the U. Wh urage and strength, you fought back, ” said OPM Director John Berry, himself an out gay man, the Washgton Post December 2010, Kameny was ved to the Whe Hoe to wns Print Barack Obama sign the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” to law.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

”While the lg Clackum’s favor turned on due procs, rather than a rejectn of the ban on gays the ary, was the first time the Armed Forc had to answer for attacks on LGBTQ service MilkHarvey Milk outsi his mera shop San Francis 1977.

That ugly dismissal cut Milk loose to pursue other terts — he tght high school on Long Island, worked at an surance firm and Wall Street brokerage New York Cy and ultimately opened a mera shop on Castro Street San Francis, where his activist reer began was one of the first openly gay elected officials the U.

"At VA, we ntuoly work not only to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ Veterans, but also to addrs ongog issu that LGBTQ+ Veterans face as a rult of the ary's s-long official policy of homophobia and transphobia, " Williams wrote.

IN U.S., BROAD, STEADY SUPPORT FOR OPENLY GAY SERVICE MEMBERS

Before the repeal, openly gay service members who were given an "other than honorable" discharge om the ary were effectively blocked om the many servic and benefs provid to veterans the U.

Image source, Emma RileyImage ptn, Rad operator Emma Riley was discharged om the Navy for beg a lbian the 1990sRishi Sunak has apologised for the historil treatment of LGBT veterans who were sacked or forced out of the ary for beg PM lled the ban an "appallg failure" of the Brish was illegal to be gay the Brish ary until 2000 - wh thoands of veterans thought to be affected. "The LGBT Veterans Inpennt Review, led by Bra's first openly gay judge Lord Etherton, began last year and heard about the experienc of 1, 145 veterans between 1967 to 2000.

Acrdg to the report, the Mistry of Defence said at the time that jtifitn for the policy clud "matenance of operatnal effectivens and efficiency" - but the report said there had been an "prehensible policy of homophobic bigotry" the armed forc. It heard shockg acunts of homophobia, bullyg, blackmail, sexual asslts, "disgraceful" medil examatns, and nversn mak 49 remendatns to the ernment cludg:Affected veterans to be given an "appropriate fancial reward" pped at £50m overallThe rtoratn of medals that had to be hand back on dismissal or dischargeThe clarifitn of pensn rights The prentatn of a special veterans' badgeThe ernment said would rpond full after summer of the veterans affected watched the PM's public of them, Emma Riley, 51, was a Royal Navy rad operator for three years before she was arrted and discharged for beg a lbian after tellg a lleague her sexualy the early told BBC News she weled the report, and hoped would be put to place "swiftly. "Olympian Dame Kelly Holm, who served the army and me out as gay last year, lled the publitn of the report a "historic moment", while Cathere Dixon, a former army officer who is now vice chair at Stonewall, said was "an important step towards jtice" for those whose ary reers were "ed" bee of their sexualy.

HOW EXCLN FROM THE MILARY STRENGTHENED GAY INTY AMERI

Many still have a crimal rerd to this also tails how some veterans faced a plete loss of e, while others were emed eligible to claim their pensn bee of their report more than 20 years after four servicemen and women, who were sacked for beg gay, won a se the European Court of Human Rights and overturned the armed forc chary Royal Brish Legn lled on the ernment to accept the report's remendatns chary's director general Charl Byrne weled both the report and Mr Sunak's "landmark apology", sayg many people who had dited their liv to the untry were "forced or felt prsured to leave the armed forc, and this mistreatment stroyed or shortened their reer". Latvia swore the first openly gay print of a Baltic natn Rkēvičs, who sce 2011 was the untry’s foreign mister, was elected by Parliament May after Print Egils Levs did not seek re-electn. She is thought to be the first openly gay prime mister the was an active unnist her nearly 10 years workg as a flight attendant, acrdg to the Council of Women World Lears, a work of female heads of state.

”Xavier Bettel Prime Mister of Luxembourg (2013-prent)Luxembourg Prime Mister Xavier Bettel at a news nference Belgra, Serbia, on July Vojovic / APBettel was first elected prime mister of Luxembourg 2013, and 2018 he beme the first openly gay prime mister the world to be re-elected for a send marriage beme legal Luxembourg 2015, and the same year Bettel beme the first servg European Unn lear to marry a same-sex partner, the BBC recently cricized a Hungarian law that bans school tnal materials and TV shows for people unr 18 that are emed to promote LGBTQ ntent, Rters reported. “Hopefully this will blow over three or four days, and then I won’t be known as the gay mister, ” she told The Associated Prs at the Varadkar Prime Mister of Ireland (2017-20, 2022-prent)Irish Prime Mister Leo Varadkar Bssels on June 30.

The majory of Amerins all key mographic groups, cludg nservativ (53%), Republins (60%), and weekly churchgoers (57%), say they favor allowg openly gay men and women to serve the ary. The views are hardly changed om what Gallup reported last year, wh all three nservative-leang groups remag more favorable toward openly gay service members than they were 2004. Support for allowg gay men and women to serve openly the ary is hight among morat (85%), liberals (82%), those who seldom or never attend church (80%), and 18- to 29-year-olds (79%).

TAMMY SMH: FIRST OPENLY GAY U.S. GENERAL

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. 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.

FEARS OF OPENLY GAY TROOPS WERE VASTLY OVERBLOWN: PENTAGON REPORT

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. As soclogist Donald Webster Cory put , “It was not until after Pearl Harbor that [the word “gay”] beme a magic by-word practilly every rner of the Uned Stat where homosexuals might gather.

The rhetoric and discrimatn surroundg blue discharg – soldiers were expelled, stigmatized and nied benefs – produced an ra of polil legimacy, where stgglg soldiers felt embolned by anti-gay stanc. 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. Bullough not that gay anizatns – such as the Veterans Benevolent Associatn – formed and grew after WWII bee the war gave gay people a chance to meet other gay people and realize they weren’t alone, which led to the formatn of muni and advocy groups.

SERVG WH OPENLY GAY SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

Instead of returng home and answerg to fearful, angry and worried fay members and acquatanc, many stayed the lotns where they had been discharged, hopg for a h start, which led to the emergence of large and visible gay muni port ci such as San Francis, Los Angel and New York. ” There was even a pamphlet advisg dodgers to “fd an exce to brg [homosexualy] back to a nversatn aga and aga, and each time ny [beg gay] and quickly change the subject. Although the ary discharged only a few thoand gay service members each year, those numbers eventually accumulated to about 100, 000 disenanchised veterans by the 1980s – among them several gay and lbian advot who brought creased visibily to the gay polil movement.

A feral appeals urt orred Watks’s restatement 1989, which was, acrdg to the New York Tim, “the first lg by a full appellate panel that stck at the ary’s ban on gay and lbian service members. A 1957 Navy report stated: “The service should not move ahead of civilian society nor attempt to set substantially different standards attu or actn wh rpect to homosexual offenrs.

While DADT was more clive than s precsors, still led to an ordate number of discharg and s proponents relied on vague nstcts such as “un hn” to exclu gay service members.

HOW GAY SOLDIERS SERVE OPENLY AROUND THE WORLD

Print Barack Obama’s repeal of DADT five years ago me after several stat had approved same-sex marriage and beme polilly viable some stat for policians to pass nondiscrimatn ordanc to protect gay and bisexual people. Last June, sexual orientatn was add to the Milary Equal Opportuny policy, which meant that gay servicemen and women would be protected om discrimatn that prevents them om risg up to higher levels the ary. As openly gay people were beg targeted and exclud om service durg the World Wars, the ary untentnally helped create supportive gay muni, ma many gay people aware of their orientatn and ultimately ntributed to the creatn of a gay inty Ameri.