Many gay and lbian vets still owed benefs after don't ask, don't tell repeal : NPR

Contents:

• US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• THE U.S. NAVY HAS CHRISTENED A SHIP NAMED AFTER SLA GAY RIGHTS LEAR HARVEY MILK
• GAY, BISEXUAL TROOPS MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER SEXUAL ASSLTS, STUDY SUGGTS

US NAVY LNCH SHIP NAMED FOR GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST HARVEY MILK

Eighteen years later, Congrs repealed the policy, allowg openly gay, lbian and bisexual people to serve the ary. 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.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

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.

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

“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. 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. RELATEDAnd on Monday, the Supreme Court led that the employers nnot discrimate agast their homosexual or transgenr employe.

GAY, BISEXUAL TROOPS MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER SEXUAL ASSLTS, STUDY SUGGTS

"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. Steve Clark Hall, a gay graduate om the class of 1975, said he knew gay classmat who were kicked out of the Amy and uld not return home to the fai who disowned them. “If you were gay [back then], was the worst, most spible, disgtg thg, ” Hall said of society’s views at the time.

Steffan was forced to rign April 1987 — two months before his graduatn — after Amy officials learned he was gay. Acrdg to a 1989 story the Philalphia Gay News, he said his father did not immediately accept his sexualy. “It is obv to me that the real problem is not homosexualy, but rather, the ary’s open and officially supported prejudice agast homosexuals who have the sire and pabily to serve their untry.

While this was seen as progrs at the time, Hall poted out how part of Clton’s platform was to allow gays, lbians, and bisexuals to openly serve the ary. “When Clton promised you uld be openly gay, I was planng on beg openly gay [while servg], ” he said. This rulted former midshipmen and ts foundg the Service Amy Gay & Lbian Alumni (SAGALA) work 1991.

The GLBT Historil Society San Francis opened a “Gays the Milary” exhib, which featured several USNA Out members on display.

“Now I unrstand that the numbers are higher for suici wh the ary, but beg gay and the ary fely would spike those numbers even higher. Ortiz anized a private dner for a closely guard gut list of about two dozen gay midshipmen and alumni. 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. "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. Gay people were only acceptable, effect, to the gree to which they uld succsfully masquera as nongay.

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.