A gay soldier’s story of Vietnam and after - Dallas Voice

Contents:

• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER
• VIETNAM CLAR BEG LGBTQ+ IS ‘NOT AN ILLNS’ VICTORY FOR GAY RIGHTS
• VIETNAM SAYS HOMOSEXUALY ‘NOT A DISEASE’ W FOR GAY RIGHTS
• GAY VIETNAM: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??
• GAYS AGAST IMPERIALISM

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

The 1994 documentary Comg Out Unr Fire giv voice to the experienc of thoands of gay and lbian servicemembers who joed the ary durg World War II, a story that is largely ignored by historians and mms across the untry. Gay and lbian recs were forced to answer qutns vaguely, or lie about their sexualy, orr to be allowed to serve; otherwise, they would n the risk of beg sent home and brand as “sex perverts. Servicemembers on every waront enjoyed drag show entertament; an entire gay lexin was veloped om the wrgs of Dorothy Parker; and eventually an unrground queer newspaper emerged.

The feral discrimatory actns drove LGBTQ people further to the shadows of society and embolned law enforcement and policians, who beme more vlent toward gay and lbian cizens. My only hope is that anizatns around the untry m to pturg the voic of gay, lbian, and transgenr veterans and that we fd a place our history to honor their service as well. We sat down wh Sir John Dermot Turg, Alan Turg’s nephew and thor of a new book on Bletchley Park, to discs his uncle’s role pivotal role puter science and his persecutn for beg gay the 1950s.

A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER

The day Larry Sanrs registered for the draft, one qutn buried the middle of a long qutnnaire smacked him the face: “Do you intify as a homosexual or ever had sexual feelgs for persons of the same sex? Beg gay, bisexual or transgenr should not be nsired an illns and nnot be treated, the Vietnam ernment has announced “a huge paradigm shift” LGBTQ+ rights the Mistry of Health said medil profsnals should treat LGBTQ+ people wh rpect and ensure they are not discrimated an announcement sent to provcial and municipal health partments earlier this month, and posted on the ernment webse, the mistry said beg LGBTQ+ “is entirely not an illns” so “nnot be ‘cured’ nor need[s] to be ‘cured’ and nnot be nverted any way” said that medics should not “terfere nor force treatment” on LGBTQ+ patients. In November, the Leave wh Pri mpaign om the Instute for Studi of Society, Enomy, and Environment (iSEE) petned the World Health Organizatn Vietnam to affirm that beg gay is not a disease.

Ho Chi Mh Cy, Vietnam – Phong Vuong was preparg for the lnch of a mpaign advotg for the legalisatn of gay marriage when he heard that the ernment had cid that homosexualy was “not a disease”. The official announcement, sent to provcial and municipal health partments natnwi before beg released on the ernment’s onle rmatn portal on Augt 8, stat that Vietnam’s health mister had received rmatn that some healthre tablishments were claimg to offer “cur” for homosexualy.

Based on this, and cg the World Health Organisatn’s (WHO) removal of homosexualy and beg transgenr om the Internatnal Classifitn of Diseas, go on to outle five primary guil for the health system. Edutn should be strengthened so all medil provirs have rrect knowledge about “lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people, ” says, and that queer people mt be treated equally medil environments.

VIETNAM CLAR BEG LGBTQ+ IS ‘NOT AN ILLNS’ VICTORY FOR GAY RIGHTS

Over the phone, a Mai Huong receptnist told Al Jazeera patients need to be asked a seri of “psychologil qutns” to terme if they are a “real gay” or a “fake gay”. Acrdg to a recent report published by the Asia branch of the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, many people the Vietname LGBTQ+ muny feel like the ernment is takg advantage of LGBTQ+ rights Vietnam as pensatn for other vlatns of human rights. Even though the law Vietnam has been more iendly towards LGBTQ+ people (or at least prciple) and the ernment has been pledgg to improve the ndns of the muny, LGBTQ+ people Vietnam still face tremendo discrimatn om society and prsure om their fai to nform to a “normal” heteronormative example, there is an issue of homosexual dividuals marryg people of different genr due to the prsure om eher society or their fay.

[8] Homosexual dividuals also engage marriage arrangements wh other homosexual dividuals of a different genr to please their fai on both to the ernment’s efficiency draftg regulatns for transgenr people, unrgog hormone therapy or other related medil procr remas extremely difficult and dangero, not to mentn very stly. [11]The 2021 electns for the Natnal Assembly and the lol People’s Commtee Hanoi saw the appearance of Luong The Huy, the first openly gay ndidate nng for both offic.

Cred: USAID/VietnamVietnam last week took a major step forward the regnn of LGBTQ rights, wh the untry’s Mistry of Health statg that beg gay, bisexual, or transgenr is not a disease and urgg medil practners to end discrimatn medil Augt 3, the untry’s Mistry of Health published a document statg that “homosexualy nnot be ‘cured’, do not need ‘to be cured’ and nnot be changed. ” When unrtakg medil re for homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual patients, health provirs “mt be fair and rpectful of their sexualy and mt not discrimate agast the groups, ” add.

VIETNAM SAYS HOMOSEXUALY ‘NOT A DISEASE’ W FOR GAY RIGHTS

Acrdg to an article published by Saigoneer, om which the above-translated excerpts of the statement were taken, the Mistry’s terventn me after a lol advocy group, the Center for Supportg Communy Development Iniativ (SCDI), raised ncerns about the growg number of medil clics claimg to be able to “cure homosexualy. ” Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, an official om SCDI, told VnExprs that her center has received var msag om members of the LGBT muny who were taken to hospals by fay members to rectify their “homosexual illns. ”While the Health Mistry’s directive is dimentary pared to recent progrs the Wt – the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn removed the diagnosis of “homosexualy” om s Diagnostic and Statistil Manual 1973, for stance – nohels marks a signifint step forward the Vietname regnal standards, Vietnam’s official stance on LGBTQ issu is hardly the most regrsive; 2014, the untry’s Natnal Assembly removed same-sex unns om a list of forbidn relatnships.

GAY VIETNAM: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??

The report showed children are often tght by both teachers and parents that beg gay is a mental illns, while young LGBTQ people ntue to “face stigma and discrimatn at home and at school.

That said, the recent progrs of other natns that once crimalized homosexualy and treated as a mental illns dit that social norms are not set stone, and n shift wh remarkable rapidy the right circumstancWhile there are many steps yet to be taken, last week’s Health Mistry lg suggts that the ernment has the potential to lead this progrs the years to e. Acrdg to the Encyclopedia of Sexualy: In Vietnam, there has historilly been relatively ltle male homosexualy, although a few of the emperors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuri did mata male ncub.

GAYS AGAST IMPERIALISM

In prent-day Vietnam, homosexualy is still regard as beg a foreign problem, and, as other socialist untri, there is a lack of official rearch on homosexual behavr.

Ai Nam Ai Nu is the clost scriptive approximatn to what is meant ontologilly and behavrally by the Wtern term homosexualy, though, if one tak Ai as a verb, the term closer to "bisexual" behavr. As far as the prevailg sexual activi, mutual masturbatn and fellat, are ncerned, there do not appear to be any strongly veloped sense of playg a mascule or feme sexual role of the kd as is often found other societi where anal terurse is more prevalent and the ultimate objective of homosexual enunters. Proschan (1998) has reported that although "gay" might be the only English word some of his rmants had known, they had embraced as their own and imbued wh meangs that diverge om those of Englishspeakers elsewhere: Vietname men today are fashng diverse ways of livg as men-who-love-men, drawg varly on endogeno tradns and inti as well as exogeno ncepts and practic, bg and rebg them, and at the same time nttg both cultural nventns that would nmn homosexualy as patible wh filial piety and metropolan notns that would sist there is only one way to be thentilly gay.

There were also homosexual steam baths, nightclubs, and ffee shops, and young boys, impoverished and orphaned by the war, sold themselv openly on street rners to passersby. For Amerin soldiers, was risky to be volved homosexual activy, bee the army did not tolerate , and spected homosexuals were immediately given a dishonorable discharge (Taylor 1997).