Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men the Milary | GQ

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• WHAT STRAIGHT SOLDIERS DO : MILARY AND GAYS: THE SEXUAL MISNDUCT OF SERVICEMEN STATNED OVERSEAS IS LEGENDARY; SHOULD BE ‘DISHONORABLE.’
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.

Straight men who have engaged suatnal homosexualy (such as prison or the ary), what's your story?

WHAT STRAIGHT SOLDIERS DO : MILARY AND GAYS: THE SEXUAL MISNDUCT OF SERVICEMEN STATNED OVERSEAS IS LEGENDARY; SHOULD BE ‘DISHONORABLE.’

In rponse, and apparently to monstrate his petency his assigned posn, the nonmissned officer had taken upon himself to approach the person he nsired cled toward mtg a siar offense the future: me, the only openly gay soldier my un.

Together we approached our un’s learship, where she sisted that the ments had stemmed om the reprentative’s own homophobic feelgs and remend that he be reprimand and removed om his posn as the un’s sexual harassment watchdog.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

But by then was hard to ignore the anxiety I felt durg required social activi — “mandatory fun, ” as ’s lled the ary — or the tensn om my fellow moment I cid to bee a soldier and the moment I chose to live openly as a gay man occurred so closely time that ’s hard to remember which me first. It was still four months before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell, ” a double-edged policy prohibg askg any service member about his or her sexualy while enforcg a ban on openly gay service members. As long as gay soldiers kept their mouths shut, the burn of proof fell on those makg the accatns.

A uple were more elaborate: tailed scriptns of what might happen to me if I was ught alone, and proclamatns about the wrongns of gays the ary.

There are moments when feels wrong to claim my stat as a veteran; as if beg gay ma me ls of a soldier and somehow validated my service.