Navy yeoman remembers his time as a gay serviceman the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' era : NPR

Contents:

• US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK
• THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK
• 'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT
• BT GAY MILARY
• NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW
• A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER
• NAVY YEOMAN REMEMBERS HIS TIME AS A GAY SERVICEMAN THE 'DON'T ASK DON'T TELL' ERA
• A GAY VETERAN REMEMBERS SERVG IN SILENCE
• WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK
• SO ANY GAY GUYS WHO HAVE BEEN THE MILARY OR NAVY POST HERE?
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK

A Navy ship named for gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who was ma to rign om the force bee of his sexual orientatn, was lnched San Diego Saturday. Milk served the Navy as a divg officer durg the Korean War, at a time when gay service members were not allowed to openly acknowledge their sexualy.

THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK

Durg his time as a divg stctor San Diego, California, the 1950s, his supervisors ught him at a park popular wh gay men, acrdg to his nephew Stuart Milk.

Milk was one of the first openly gay policians elected to office the Uned Stat, and the first openly gay official elected California. While servg as a cy supervisor, Milk troduced legislatn to protect the gay muny, cludg a gay rights ordance 1978 to ban discrimatn agast LGBTQ hog or employment. He and other activists also succeed strikg down Proposn 6, which would have mandated the firg of gay or lbian teachers California.

'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT

Navy has lnched and christened a ship named for the sla gay rights lear Harvey Milk, who served the Navy durg the Korean War but was discharged after beg qutned about his sexual orientatn. Namg the ship after an in of the LGBTQ rights movement reprents a symbolic tone for the ary followg a long history which gay service members were unable to serve openly.

In this April 1977 file photo, San Francis supervisor Harvey Milk ss the mayor's office durg the signg of the cy's gay rights bill San Francis.

The Navy is namg a ship honor of the late gay rights lear, who served the Navy for four years before he began a reer San Francis cy ernment. In 1977, after his Navy reer, Milk beme the first openly gay elected official California when he won a seat on the San Francis Board of Supervisors.

BT GAY MILARY

'I Don't Feel Part Of The Milary Anymore': Openly Gay Pilot Leav After Harassment One of Naval Aviatn's few openly gay pilots is leavg his ary reer behd after only six years, cg harassment as the reason.

NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

One of Naval Aviatn's few openly gay pilots is leavg his ary reer behd after only six years, cg harassment as the reason. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: A after "don't ask, don't tell" end, one of Naval aviatn's few openly gay pilots is on his way out. KPBS' Steve Walsh has the WALSH, BYLINE: For most of his six years the Navy, Litenant Adam Adamski says he felt supported as an openly gay pilot.

A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER

And I saw my drs wh draped over and around the TV, and there was hardre gay porn His uniform was wrapped around a TV playg pornography. ADAMSKI: I received numero lls om people that are the closet that squadron, both men and women, and openly gay service members tellg me that they are upset and that they don't thk the climate, pecially for pilots, is a good climate that squadron and that they thk I should report The don't ask, don't tell policy end a ago, allowg LGBT service members to serve openly. The two men are parents to Ethan, a prec 13-year-old known the flat, clay and pe untry as the only kid school wh two gay first openly gay SEAL has built a new life here at age 41 wh a fay that has replaced the two fai he lost — the one that raised him and the one he built wh fellow SEALs.

Both his parents and the Navy banished him bee he’s this steamy night, the two gay parents and their straight son are sweatg and shovg as they fight to w a roughhoe driveway basketball game lled Cheater Ball.

They are close, and necsarily so, sce a gay marriage — not to mentn gay parentg — is viewed wh ep spicn and outright hostily perhaps the most anti-gay state the Jon and Whe attend Ethan’s baseball gam, they say, ach and other parents barely speak to them. When he was high school, his mother, a vout Christian, overheard his phone nversatn wh a gay next day, Jon says, his parents nonted him.

NAVY YEOMAN REMEMBERS HIS TIME AS A GAY SERVICEMAN THE 'DON'T ASK DON'T TELL' ERA

He had served for six years and two ployments on mandg, secretive missns when his homosexualy was was the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era.

They gossiped about him, ridiculg gays and sayg a homosexual SEAL would stroy un Navy dropped s vtigatn after Jon enlisted a natnal group that advot for gays the ary, and after members of Congrs tervened. Last December, they drove to Indiana to be married by a urt, 37, had lived his own secret, tormented life growg up Athens, where gays were ridiculed and monized.

His father cracked jok about homos and day Whe cid to e out, he says, “I told my dad and he stood up and I was bracg for a punch.

A GAY VETERAN REMEMBERS SERVG IN SILENCE

” His father apologized for all his gay slurs over the and his brother, Matt, helped nvce Jon to self-publish a memoir, “Pri: The Story of the First Openly Gay Navy SEAL, ” released October. ”Jon and Whe want to sell the hoe and move Ethan to a public school nearby Huntsville, which they ll “a progrsive island” a state so hostile to gay marriage that s chief Supreme Court jtice orred unti to disobey a feral urt orr Febary permtg gay fay feels fortable Huntsville, home to scientists and engeers om across the untry who work fense and aerospace.

WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK

“We have the only tornado shelter on the street, ” Whe, they don’t expect a gay pri para Toney anytime soon.

SO ANY GAY GUYS WHO HAVE BEEN THE MILARY OR NAVY POST HERE?

“Of urse, every day I take a drive is a gay pri para, ’’ Whe clients of their secury pany don’t particularly re that ’s owned and managed by two gay men, Whe says. The two are a former SEAL and former p, after all, and Jon served for years as a secury ntractor Afghanistan and Iraq after leavg the, Jon is active the Trevor Project, which operat 24-hour suici hotl for troubled lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr young people. They never discs Christiany or “the gay thg, ” Jon Jon, who liv At, Texas, says she lov and admir her son for his honty and urage.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Des later, at the age of 81, Joseph rerd for StoryCorps om his home Santa Moni, California, where he spoke about his service and how he was eventually kicked out of the Navy due to the assumptn that he was “homosexual.