An inic character on TV's "M*A*S*H" is Corporal Max Klger, who wore a drs orr to leave Korea. Klger was wrten to be gay.
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LENNY BCE'S GAY NAVAL RE
He got out of the Navy by sayg he was gay, wh a long story of fallg love wh a fellow sailor.
A doctor’s evaluatn: “This patient has a tremendo amount of homosexual drive wh some d amount of overt homosexual tennci. Brooklyn May 1945 to report that he was feelg a ltle gay. ” It was the “knowledge that was a crime agast society and the navy” that kept Bce, 19 at the time, om mtg homosexual acts, he wrote.
‘M*A*S*H’: ONE MAJOR CHARACTER WAS INIALLY WRTEN TO BE A GAY MAN
Wh days, a Navy medil officer reported to the ship’s mandg officer that Bce told him of “supprsg homosexual tennci and the sire is beg stronger, ” acrdg to a May 1945 Navy memo. Bce noted that he had been proposned by two fellow shipmat “to be a partner a homosexual act, ” but had cled, though “the temptatn was strong. Concerned about Bce’s purported ndn, the Navy cid to send him for “nro-psychiatric nsultatn” sce he had “a tremendo amount of homosexual drive wh some d amount of overt homosexual tennci.
” The medil officer noted that Bce was “que ncerned about his abnormaly, ” addg that he was “the type of homosexual that uld readily adjt to heterosexual relatns if given the opportuny. ” However, if Bce had to rema statned on a ship filled wh men, he would “eventually give way to the performance of homosexual acts, ” nclud the medil officer. The are jt some of the rollickg highlights om the official ary service rerd of Leonard Aled Schneir, who would later wre his 1963 tobgraphy that he faked his homosexualy to get out of the Navy.
Documents tailg Bce’s purported gay sir (and the subsequent rponse by Navy brass) were origally whheld or heavily redacted by Natnal Archiv officials who procsed a TSG Freedom of Informatn Act requt. The rerds show that after Bce told of his gay sir, a Navy pta asked him for a wrten statement “showg specifilly whether he is a homosexual and if he has mted homosexual acts” eher before or durg his enlistment.