A Gay Veteran Remembers Servg In Silence : NPR

Contents:

• THIS VETERAN'S JOB WAS DISCHARGG GAY SAILORS IN THE NAVY — BUT HE HAD A SECRET
• NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW
• THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
• A GAY VETERAN REMEMBERS SERVG IN SILENCE
• PAROLE NIED FOR MAN WHO MURRED GAY SAILOR 1992
• SAILOR'S KILLER 'DISGUSTED' BY GAYS
• GAY AND BEG A 'SAILOR'
• NAVY'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

THIS VETERAN'S JOB WAS DISCHARGG GAY SAILORS IN THE NAVY — BUT HE HAD A SECRET

DoD LGBTQ+ Timele: This timele not signifint events and polici chronologil orr that had a signifint impact on Department of Defense (DoD) polici, stctns, or orrs as they relate to the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer (LGBTQ+) muny. Prr to the 1990s, dividuals were not explicly prohibed by law om servg, but that did not stop all branch of the ary om dischargg service members for engagg homosexual acts or om screeng spected homosexuals upon enlistment. The prence the ary environment of persons who engage homosexual nduct or who, by their statements, monstrate a propensy to engage homosexual nduct, serly impairs the acplishment of the ary missn.

NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

Ross Ben, “How Excln From the Milary Strengthened Gay Inty Ameri, ” Rollg Stone, Sam Deloach Collectn, Veterans History Project, Amerin Folklife Center, Library of Congrs. Throughout 1952, Otto Bremerman sat at his ary sk the personnel office of the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, typg up dishonorable discharg for sailors who had been acced of homosexualy.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS

He knew that the sailors had selflsly taken on the same risks as their heterosexual unterparts to serve their untry durg the Korean War, but bee they were gay, they would now suffer the nsequenc of dishonorable discharge for the rt of their liv.

A GAY VETERAN REMEMBERS SERVG IN SILENCE

Wh each keystroke, Bremerman was remd of his own vulnerabily — he was a gay Amerin himself, hidg his inty a untry unwillg to accept his open many stat, om Bremerman’s time until current day, a dishonorable discharge is treated as a felony. He now knew for certa that he was gay, but until he had his first sexual experience wh a man, he still assumed that this was a temporary phase and when he left the service he would move back home, marry a woman, and have children. In a Senate mtee report released the midst of Cold War hysteria over the threat of Communist filtratn, homosexualy was characterized as a morally praved danger to natnal secury on the grounds that homosexuals were more vulnerable to extortn for nfintial rmatn by foreign agents.

Stripped of their livelihoods, shamed, and facg potential lastg unemployment, an unknown number of outed gay and lbian feral employe mted suici shortly after they were damagg homophobic stereotyp that solidified durg this perd of history persisted until the 1960s, when the LGBT muny began to fight back. [They would] grow up to bee doctors and lawyers, civil rights advot, and…homosexuals, ” he add wh a said he and his bt iend Charlie me out to each other on Long Island after sneakg to the 1964 World’s Fair wh a group of iends. ”Sala says the therapist uldn’t fd a psychologil ratnale to expla his homosexualy, so the therapist attempted to persua him that he had been molted as a child and didn’t remember.

While servg silence durg that perd, many members of the armed forc were verbally huiated, tortured, or raped bee of their real or perceived homosexualy, and now suffer om bilatg mental illns such as prsn, anxiety, and post-trmatic strs livg the barracks at Camp Pendleton, Evelyn Thomas, the Dert Storm veteran, said that her roommat broke to her locker and stole a letter om her mother, which mentned a woman Thomas was datg.

PAROLE NIED FOR MAN WHO MURRED GAY SAILOR 1992

This diaspora ntued throughout future tim of war; the San Francis Bay Area quickly beme known as the “gay mec” of the Uned Stat for s vibrant and polilly active gay muny.

“It’s heart-achg work, but fulfillg work, ” said endurg stutnalized homophobia through three difficult tours of Iraq, Sala says his exposure to opprsn has transformed the nature of his patrtism.

SAILOR'S KILLER 'DISGUSTED' BY GAYS

In an effort to honor one gay veteran’s legacy, Stolakis ma Otto Bremerman’s divid allegiance to his untry and his sexualy the foc of her documentary The Typist, which she filmed while earng her MFA at Stanford Universy. “Readg about Bremerman and the way he was able to shg off the homophobia and live a really happy and full life San Francis felt almost like a foil for my uncle, who eply ternalized the transphobia and was never able to live his life as an out transgenr person, ” said Stolakis.

On Memorial Day, gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr veterans reflect not only on the honorable sacrifice of Ameri’s fallen soldiers, but also on the fear, disrpect, and abe they endured while servg their untry. The long history of discrimatn agast LGBT service members spans wars and generatns, takg forms rangg om homophobic remarks and dishonorable discharge to rape, torture, and memorate the long history of LGBT service the ary, the Natnal LGBT Veterans Memorial Project is currently fundraisg to build a memorial at the Congrsnal Cemetery Washgton, D. ”The pleted memorial will ri near the grave of Leonard Matlovich, a gay war hero who beme a revolutnary lear the gay rights movement after he was discharged om the Air Force the early 1970s.

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.

GAY AND BEG A 'SAILOR'

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. ” 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.

NAVY'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

”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.

“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.