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. 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. 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.

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

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.

'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.

'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. 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.

BT GAY MILARY

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. 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. 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.

NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

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.

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

A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER

“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. 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. 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?

At the time Sanrs registered for the draft 1967, no one was clear about what happened to someone who admted beg gay. When I registered for the draft jt a few years later, I was told not to say I was gay, bee they would make you prove . Navy yeoman remembers his time as a gay serviceman the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' era Navy Yeoman Jab Tate remembers his time as a gay serviceman durg the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" era, which kept openly LGBTQ service members om servg the ary.,.

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

Navy Yeoman Jab Tate remembers his time as a gay serviceman durg the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" era, which kept openly LGBTQ service members om servg the ary.

Joseph Patton, at home Santa Moni, Calif., told StoryCorps last year that he was given an unsirable discharge for beg iends wh openly gay men the ary.

A GAY VETERAN REMEMBERS SERVG IN SILENCE

Des before openly gay Amerins were legally allowed to serve the ary, Joseph Patton, a gay man, served silence. " The 1993 Clton-era policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" took an outright ban on gay service members and replaced wh a policy that allowed homosexual and bisexual people to serve the ary as long as they didn't reveal their sexual orientatn.

When he served, Patton relled top ary brass actively enforcg the ban when he went to a gay bar San Diego wh other service members. "They had ary police walkg around to check and see if there were any service men any of the gay bars, " he said. Although Patton kept his sexual orientatn private, he was ultimately penalized bee he was part of a social circle that clud gay men who opened up to learship about their sexualy.

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

This past sprg, bat trag before my ployment to Afghanistan, someone found out I was gay, walked up to me and said, "I'm glad I'm not ployg wh you, I wouldn't tst a fag wh my life. I distctly remember one day when an stctor said, "Oh look at those faggots, " and then turned to sayg, "Wa, 's OK to be gay, YOU jt n't be gay. I feared I would be rejected by people I once was iends wh, terrified that the learship above me would look at me as ls of a man, or that any acplishment I have will be attributed to me beg gay, and not my mer.

Got missned as an officer 2002 and am approachg my 12th year a gay man, 2002 - 2004 were the worst bee I was so aaid of gettg kicked out unr Don't Ask Don't those were technilly supposed to be among the bt years of my datg life! Surprisgly, I've found the Army to be the gay-iendlit branch (most of my good iends are straight Soldiers who know I'm gay and have been nothg but supportive) Anonymoreply 6Febary 9, 2014 9:51 PM.

Coast guard seems to be the most gay tend to al wh civilians more than the other Anonymoreply 15Augt 3, 2018 5:32 PM. 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.

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

"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. " Gay people were allowed the ary but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexualy; to facilate this, all members of the ary were also prohibed om quirg about anyone’s possible orientatn. Servicemen were advised that until then the policy would still apply, and that they uld potentially face s sanctns if they intify themselv publicly as gay.

’ "Air Force #1: "Two of my iends were disvered, both officers—’s a long and arduo procs for an officer to get kicked out for beg gay. You’re a Mare, you don’t md gettg dirty, gog out to the field and not showerg for weeks at a, if you were gay, when you have to shower wh all the other guys you’d get all exced.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

I mean, if you want to hi, the Mare Corps is one of the bt plac to do that, bee nobody wants to adm they are standg next to a gay guy. I had ma about halfway through and the recer was trated wh how long was takg me, and he said, ’Well, basilly, are you gay? One Man’s Operatn Iraqi FreedomMany gay servicemen the morn era—cludg Eric Alva (Mar, 1991–2004)—have pleted long ary reers whout their sexualy ever beg revealed.

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. Lbians have suffered unr the same prohibns and prejudic and share many of the same experienc, as well as some that are distct, but this article ncentrat on the experience of gay men.

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. (The meetgs have been arranged through a private onle work lled OutServe, set up only last year, which allows gay and lbian servicepeople a safe and secure way of fdg and munitg wh one another. To be the ary and still try to live any kd of life as a gay man, ’s not Force #4 (senr airman, four years): "Right now our relatnships don’t exist.