Navy's first openly gay SEAL builds his life anew - Los Angel Tim

Contents:

• THIS VETERAN'S JOB WAS DISCHARGG GAY SAILORS IN THE NAVY — BUT HE HAD A SECRET
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• GAY SAILORS STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK
• NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW
• GAY NAVY SAILOR'S HOMEG KISS WH HBAND AFTER 7-MONTH DEPLOYMENT SETS OFF OUTRAGE

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

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. 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.

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. ” Dpe his prer posn of thory, Bremerman seized every opportuny available to secretly warn sailors acced of homosexualy before they nfsed.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

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.

GAY SAILORS STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

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.

The mtee argued that homosexuals would betray their untry rather than live wh the nsequenc of beg outed for their sexual orientatn.

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

” This orr jtified the firg of feral employe for “sexual perversn, ” a classifitn that enpassed homosexualy. 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. However, the gay feelgs wouldn’t leave him, and so a fal attempt to “fix” his sexualy, his fay and spirual advisers sent him to gay reparative therapy. ”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.

In 1942, ary psychiatrists clared that homosexuals had “psychopathic personaly disorrs" that ma them unf to fight.

NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

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.

Followg World War II, thoands of gay veterans settled San Francis, a port cy where many dishonorably discharged sailors were released om the Navy. 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.

GAY NAVY SAILOR'S HOMEG KISS WH HBAND AFTER 7-MONTH DEPLOYMENT SETS OFF OUTRAGE

It took s, but we saw chang, ” said the mid-1980s, the HIV/AIDS crisis was vastatg the San Francis 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. 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.