This paper seeks to trace the plex attus towards homosexualy the 1960s through the lens of the Vietnam War. I postulate that adoptg the e of prottg the ban on homosexuals the ary, upled wh the expansn of voyristic and sensatnalized pictns of homosexuals, served to unify the gay muny and strengthen homosexual inty. The voyrism of Vietnam as the “Livg Room War” brought the homosexual man out om the shadows, and though homosexualy ntued to be nsired a marker of mental illns and stabily, the sire to see the taboo world of the gay man changed the basele and ultimately began to normalize homosexualy overall.
Contents:
A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER
The war radilized many draft-age men, gay as well as straight. They helped normalize certa exprsns of homosexualy while tryg to avoid the draft. * homosexuality in the vietnam war *
But historian Jt David Suran argu that an all-enpassg aspect of the Sixti has been downplayed or even ignored what he lls this “Stonewall-centered versn of gay history. “Inty-based solidari were a ccial factor antiwar anizg and antiwar activi played a cril role the formatn of inty-based movements such as Gay Liberatn, ” wr Suran. The Mattache Society, the Dghters of Bilis, and later, the Society for Individual Rights were typilly ma up of people wh memori of the ary’s anti-homosexualy purg WWII and Korea.
) The homophile anizatns unrstood dishonorable discharg as socially and enomilly disastro for those affected and argued that rpectabily for gays necsated their tegratn to the ary. “Bee ductn terviews were more about seemg gay than beg gay, ” wr Suran, heterosexual men helped normalize the acknowledgement of homosexual “tennci” or nduct by tryg to “queer out” of the draft.
This say seeks to shed light on gay Vietnam War veterans whose experienc have remaed overlooked; the gay service personnel have battled to be heard, if they ever wanted to be heard at all. The say also seeks to expla how historil and societal factors impacted on the gay psyche and how dividuals challenged an… * homosexuality in the vietnam war *
“As a nsequence of such requirements, ” not Suran, “homosexual men were sometim disbelieved and drafted, while heterosexual men able to obta the appropriate letters or mimic homosexual stereotyp were ferred. From San Francis’s Commtee for Homosexual Freedom to New York Cy’s Gay Liberatn Front—a name chosen to voke Third World revolutnary movements—the radils fiantly opposed the war, “macho” arism, and “the long-standg homophile mand for tegratn to the armed servic.
As a nsequence, when Leonard Matlovich challenged his discharge for g out as homosexual the Air Force 1975, beg one of the most famo gay Amerins of the , he ially had ltle support Gay Liberatn circl. 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). 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.