Army’s first openly gay general retir after spirg others | Article | The Uned Stat Army

Contents:

• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
• COUNTRI THAT ALLOW GAY PEOPLE TO SERVE ARMY

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Before "don't ask, don't tell" was officially repealed for gay, lbian, and bisexual ary personnel 2011, a photo of a male Mare drag uld have land him hot water. "Lbian, gay, and bisexual ary personnel had been servg our untry for s whout receivg equal protectn, while transgenr troops are still prohibed om servg openly. Half a after the repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell, most lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr service members still felt reluctant to be open about their sexualy wh their lleagu and cha of mand, acrdg to a study released late study, published by the journal Sexualy Rearch and Social Policy, found that 59 percent of rponnts did not feel fortable beg out at work, eher bee of reer repercsns or bee of the burn of beg a token rponsible for tg their peers.

”Dpe the orrs om above, many veterans publicly opposed the 2011 repeal of the ban on gay, lbian and bisexual service for troops who had grown up that environment, the policy’s mise did not flip a swch terms of fort level ― theirs or their lleagu.

“The stctor was reported to e the pejorative term ‘fags’ durg class, disclose other people’s sexual mory inty to his stunts whout their permissn, and munite that he believed sexual mori were more promiscuo than heterosexuals, ” acrdg the the study, based on a rponse om a gay soldier.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

I am about to be put on a board for major and I do not want to not even have that opportuny to put myself where they n easily be like, ‘Get rid of this guy; if we have to cut 55 percent of the officers up for , he’s one of the easy on we n jt fd a reason to jt ver [ourselv], ' " said one rponnt, a gay Mare. “I had a few iends there [ trag] that I got to know pretty well, but I knew a uple of them had some pretty strong relig backgrounds and I did not really feel like ttg the waters at that pot, ” one rponnt, a gay soldier, said. I’m like well, the bt way to keep people om beg homophobic is to have them have someone that they know and rpect, who is gay, ” one sailor said.

"COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS

"An employer who fir an dividual for beg homosexual or transgenr fir that person for tras or actns would not have qutned members of a different sex, ” Jtice Neil Gorsuch wrote the cisn. 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.

"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.

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

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.

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.

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.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS

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. In the shadow of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, " whenever gay servicemen did face any kd of homophobic harassment, they were powerls to draw attentn to whout potentially triggerg the end of their ary reer.

COUNTRI THAT ALLOW GAY PEOPLE TO SERVE ARMY

The le self beme the very tool of their opprsn: "The ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, " says Joseph Rocha (navy, 2004–7), "punish homosexuals who ply, and protects bigots. Of a number of latg events—Rocha was also force-fed dog food and locked to a sh-filled dog kennel—the most abive and explicly homophobic was when he was orred by his manr to act a dog-trag scenar, repeated over and over so that every dog the un uld be n through .

Lovg so much that each scenar was gayer and more disgtg—the troductn of fake semen, that I would have to wipe my face, or that I would have to make slurpg nois. Anyone who gets off thkg that ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ unr the Bh admistratn anyone uld have gone and said, ’Hey, I’m beg antagonized unr the prciple that I might be gay’ and feel safe is absurd.