As "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to an end, we sent Chris Heath to terview dozens of gay servicemen om the past and prent to fd out what life was really like as Ameri's ary stggled wh s last great inty crisis
Contents:
- THE HEARTBREAKG TE STORY OF THE GAY TEEN AND HIS DAD BEHD ‘JOE BELL’
- THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
- ‘LAST CALL’ TE STORY: HBO DOC IS ABOUT THE SERIAL KILLER RICHARD ROGERS, WHO TARGETED MANHATTAN’S GAY BARS
- THEY LIVED A 'DOUBLE LIFE' FOR S. NOW, THE GAY ELRS ARE TELLG THEIR STORI.
- 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
- TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
- JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
- JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
- GAY SNA EXPERIENC
- THE GAY FATHER I NEVER KNEW
- YOUNG BISEXUAL AND GAY MEN: PERSONAL STORI
- A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER
- THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
- JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
- IN 'LAST CALL', A SERIAL KILLER TARGETS MANHATTAN'S '90S GAY BARS. INSI THE TE STORY
THE HEARTBREAKG TE STORY OF THE GAY TEEN AND HIS DAD BEHD ‘JOE BELL’
"Joe Bell" is a new movie that tells the heartbreakg te story of Jad Bell, a gay teen who died by suici, and his father's walk his memory. * gay story true *
In April 2013, Joe Bell left his home La Gran, a small town the northeast rner of Oregon, to walk across the untry honor of his 15-year-old son, Jad, who had died Febary a few weeks after attemptg and his wife, Lola Lathrop, told lol and natnal news outlets at the time that Jad was bullied for beg gay, both onle and at school. In addn to beg the only out gay stunt at his school, he was also the only boy on the cheerleadg squad, and Bell told Salon 2013 that he was bullied for said he uld relate to Jad and his story, bee he was also bullied growg up Texas.
The 2019 bpic, starrg Taron Egerton as openly-gay sger-songwrer and mic in Elton John, tells the story of John's rise to fame and some of the setbacks he's experienced, cludg a stt rehab, throughout his s-long reer. Milk served as a member of the San Francis Board of Supervisors and while the tle might not seem like a lot, the fact that a gay person was elected by the public to any posn 1978 was a huge tone for the LGBTQ+ muny. Perhaps was the support of iends, nts, and those around me that ma me not want to feel ashamed about myself anymore, even if that meant God damng me to the begng of senr year, I went om “I’m gay” to whoever asked, to “Can you stop sayg faggot please?
THE HIDN GAY LIV FALLY BEG UNVERED
This is the story of my first time and, as many first tim on anythg, didn't´t go well bee of my experience. Many say they knew they were gay their whole liv, not my se. I had no ia. If somebody would tell me I was gay before that day, I would have given them a middle fger. But I * gay story true *
A month later, I cid to no longer participate the mentorship program, and every time I was asked why, I ma exc about beg too time, I retreated to my fantasy world, where I was not sixteen and gay a homophobic environment, but a world where I was olr, the future, when I would arrive to a betiful home om a long day at work, and be weled by a hband who lov me and bears my burns on his shoulrs. For a long time, the mastream public didn't want to hear our Ca's The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle tells the story of a secretly gay postman searchg for a lost love om his youth (Cred: Headle Review)"I would venture to say that the public were disgted and outraged, " says thor Crystal Jeans. It's about a lonely, socially awkward and secretly gay postman livg a fictnal town the north of England who hs retirement, realisg he wants to turn his life around and fally be happy – but to do this, he needs to fd the love of his life, a man he hasn’t seen for nearly 50 years.
‘LAST CALL’ TE STORY: HBO DOC IS ABOUT THE SERIAL KILLER RICHARD ROGERS, WHO TARGETED MANHATTAN’S GAY BARS
Stori by, for, and/or about Gay and Bi Young People. * gay story true *
That same year, the so-lled "Alan Turg law" offered pardons to 49, 000 Brish gay men who’d been nvicted of homosexual acts – followg a mpaign arguably bolstered by the greater awarens brought about by The Imatn Game, the h film that picted the nvictn and chemil stratn of the Enigma-breakg puter scientist. Over the last five years, a tr of Irish wrers have livered stunng gay-themed novels set predomantly perds of history that didn't wele them – John Boyne (The Heart’s Invisible Furi), Graham Norton (Home Stretch), and Sebastian Barry (the Costa Award-wng Days Whout End).
In the theatre, Matthew Lopez's exploratn of gay male history The Inherance triumphed London before transferrg to New York, where opened the year after a well-received revival of Mart Crowley's semal 1968 play Boys the Band. Most recently, the ter explod wh behd-the-scen photos of Harry Styl om the shoot of new film My Policeman, an adaptatn of Bethan Roberts's 2012 novel starrg the pop superstar as a closeted gay man the 1950s. This was another reason I wrote The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle; I wanted to tell the story of one ordary young gay man tryg to exprs his love for another at a time when this would not have been accepted.
THEY LIVED A 'DOUBLE LIFE' FOR S. NOW, THE GAY ELRS ARE TELLG THEIR STORI.
The HBO doceri Last Call digs to the hunt for a serial killer who targeted gay men New York the early '90s—and why the victims were almost lost to history. * gay story true *
Pop star Harry Styl is starrg new film My Policeman as a closeted gay officer the 1950s (Cred: Getty Imag)"What we see all through history is that people are nied their past as part of a way to ntrol them, " says Hornby. You may be able to fd the same ntent another format, or you may be able to fd more rmatn, at their web this documentary, a gay filmmaker shows his Che fay's road to acceptg him and his growg fay the Uned Stat.
You may be able to fd the same ntent another format, or you may be able to fd more rmatn, at their web Kramer's semi-tobgraphil drama to life this HBO film, tellg the story of the creatn of the Gay Men's Health Crisis at the height of the AIDS epimic. Tellg the te story of a young man who is subjected to a gay nversn therapy program, the film featur a number of LGBTQ+ intifyg stars, cludg Cherry Jon and Troye nowMy Own Private Idaho (1991)This ntent is imported om youTube. You may be able to fd the same ntent another format, or you may be able to fd more rmatn, at their web Hanks and Denzel Washgton star one of the first mastream Hollywood movi to tackle the subject of HIV/AIDS, homosexualy, and homophobia.
The Sixth Commandment9pm, BBC OneTimothy Spall stars this dark drama by Sarah Phelps based on the horrifyg real-life se of Peter Farquhar, an elrly, eply closeted gay amic who was sced, exploed and eventually murred by too-good-to-be-te stunt Ben Field (Éanna Hardwicke). "Like his victims, who were bisexual and gay, Rogers is a gay man, per his trial ’s book go over some of his bgraphil tails: Rogers was the elst of five children born to a fay Plymouth, had had n-s wh the law before for siarly morbid allegatns.
'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
There's a way to burst through the shame gay men are ma to feel about homosexualy. * gay story true *
Jt 22 years after clash wh police outsi the Stonewall Inn Greenwich Village opened a promisg new ont the ongog fight for LGBTQ+ rights, AIDS was cimatg the queer muny and hate crim were on the rise, no small part due to the tragilly wispread misperceptn of the vis as a gay disease and lack of unrstandg about how was transmted.
Last Call: When a Killer Stalked Queer New York, a four-part HBO seri premierg July 9, lv to the grisly murrs and a not-so-distant past when blatant homophobia was still the norm and queer bars, as one activist puts the show, "were one of the few plac the muny where we uld e and feel safe. "And even then, adds Bea Hanson, who served as a liaison between the NYC Gay & Lbian Anti-Vlence Project and police, "There was always this sort of 'you've got to watch your back at the same time too' sort of feelg.
TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
* gay story true *
Tony Brooks, a 26-year-old ndidate for cy uncil at the time, told police he and Anrson had gone to Manhattan together the night of May 3 to attend a fundraiser at the Central Park Wt home of Robert Browne, a proment gay rights activist. Worst of all, though, the shame attached to the memori of those first tim marred how I would approach sex for was listeng to Years & Years’ new song “Sanctify, ” and seeg the band’s out gay sger Olly Alexanr talk about how the song was spired his sexual trysts wh straight men, that I realized that the feelgs are way more mon than people let on. Sure, I know all about gay guys havg sex wh straight guys, but felt reassurg to see him scribe the “sat and sner role” he embodied durg those experienc, and to hear the uncertaty and melancholy weaved to the than anythg though, was the repeated lyril mantra of “I won’t be ashamed.
JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
Jaguars assistant Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's pro sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer. * gay story true *
The sight of my first, garishly done ighteng makp wh giant fake ts eaked me out and ma me feel that turng to a drag queen was the logil rult of gay activi, and that if I kept on beg gay, I would bee a drag queen.
”“What bothered me the most was havg to talk to the guys that were beg discharged, and they were not a good state of wellns anyway, bee at that time, was illegal or nsired mental problems to be gay, ” he Cunngham, 82, and Richard Prtt, 78, have llectively spent 115 years the closet. The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn also classified homosexualy as a mental disorr the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs until 1973, when that classifitn was replaced wh “sexual orientatn disturbance. The study’s thors found that the creased risk was partially due to higher rat of prsn that olr LGBTQ people experience due to workplace discrimatn, shame and other stigma associated wh their stigma still persists, but the elrs and producers behd “Not Another Send” hope their project n help, even if jt a small Cooper lived her whole life as an openly gay woman New York Cy.
JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
I am thkg of gog along to a gay sna. I found one about an hour drive om where I live that as a no cloth day. From the photos and reviews ... * gay story true *
"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. 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. 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 .
Life Seventy Years Ago as a Gay Serviceman: World War IIIt was only really around the Send World War that ary discrimatn beme dified and anized, and that the foc moved om simply sanctns agast homosexual acts to an attempt to intify and weed out homosexual tennci—though, as would be seen aga and aga, when fightg bodi were need badly enough, such ncerns would often evaporate. "JM: "I found out right after the war that if someone were discharged as homosexual, a notice of that fact was sent home to their lol draft board, so that their whole muny would e to know that they were gay.
And this led directly to the formatn of gay ghettos the major ci, where people who uldn’t go home, bee their sexualy had been revealed by the army, had to move to Greenwich Village or the San Francis Castro. Manzella operated fully wh the vtigatn; when he was asked for evince that he wasn’t jt claimg to be gay orr to trigger a discharge, he even supplied photos, and footage of him and his boyiend passnately kissg on a road trip.
GAY SNA EXPERIENC
Gay men stori: real life personal stori om young gay men. * gay story true *
"While he was ployed, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a mpaigng group who had been givg him guidance, told him that 60 Mut wanted to do a piece about an openly gay man servg a bat zone, persuadg him that would give a voice to the "65, 000 men and women the ary" who weren’t able to live as openly as he was.
THE GAY FATHER I NEVER KNEW
I was nfed until beme clear that, partly by chance and partly by a cha of personal remendatns over the years, this trailer park had bee some kd of gay-veteran hot spot: There are eight or ten others livg here, and more nearby.
’ The CO looked at my iend and said, ’If somebody wants to get off my ship for beg gay, they have to e to me wh two Polaroids, both of them they have to be clearly suckg ck, and I want to be able to see their face. In June 1998, Richard Merrt (Mar, 1985–98) appeared on the ver of The New York Tim Magaze, uniform but wh his face obscured, and si the story scribed what life was actually like for someone gay servg the ary.
YOUNG BISEXUAL AND GAY MEN: PERSONAL STORI
’" The way he sometim jtified to himself what he did was that was a rponse to the ary’s homophobia, albe an extreme one: "I would feel very angry at the policy, and beme ’Well, fuck you, Mare Corps—I’m gog to do this and be as gay as I want to be for the world to see.
Some likely post-repeal plitns: ristant pockets of homophobia the ary; the ntued right to voice certa homophobic sentiments unr, for stance, the eedom of relig exprsn; possible aternizatn charg if gay servicemen of different ranks ntue to associate wh each other as they often did the silent years; growg disquiet at the absence of partner rights equivalent to those for servicemen’s wiv.
-- Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach major Amerin men's profsnal sports to publicly e out as gay, tellg he ma the cisn bee he didn't want to hi who he is any longer and to possibly spire others siar 's a cisn and move that drew praise and support om owner Shad Khan, who was a vol and emphatic supporter of a cy ordance that expand protectns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and genr exprsn. SiegedSec, a self-scribed group of gay furry hackers, took s skills to state ernments late June, breachg agenci across five stat and releasg a wealth of data.The stat targeted on June 27 were Texas, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and South Carola. "Uwu gay furri pwn you~ We'll be back aga soon to ntue our chaos and stctn!"Some news outlets, such as Them, raised ncerns that the group's actns uld expose random people to harm, not jt the targeted ernments.
A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER
Jacksonville Jaguars assistant strength and ndng ach Kev Maxen cid on Thursday to e out publicly as gay hop of livg his life whout fear and to spire others.“I don’t want to feel like I have to thk about anymore,” Maxen told Outsports. I want to be vol support of people livg how they want to live, but I also want to jt live and not feel fear about how people will react.”Maxen is believed to be the first male ach major Amerin men’s pro sports to e out as gay.He has dated his boyiend, Nick, for more than two years, acrdg to Outsports.Maxen has been the Jaguars assistant strength ach for more than two years, acrdg to his LkedIn profile.
Before jog Jacksonville’s achg staff, he was a strength ach for the football teams at Baylor and Vanrbilt.In Febary 2022, Maxen reached out to NFL player Carl Nassib, who me out as gay 2021, to seek advice.“For a while I had such an anger for myself and hatred that I thought was om a fear of what others might thk about who I am,” Maxen said, per Outsports.
THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
While I’d never met an out gay man, I kd of knew what they were supposed to be like om movi and TV, and Dad f the mold: He loved to ok; he cleaned obssively; he kept the Internatnal Male talog around, bee, he said, “I like the cloth. I was hant at first and wanted to tell him so much earlier bee I had a csh on him back High School and he was one of those typil people who would act homophobic if a guy said the wrong thg or spoke to him wh a lisp/acted overly iendly. We were never really iends but he end up stg next to me math class and we got que day durg football practice he me to me when i was stg the stands watchg the game, we talked about a lot of thgs and out of the blue he asked me if i was gay, at this pot i had not told anyone about my orientatn and for some reason i said y, this guy that i jt met months ago was the first person i me out to.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY
What happened next was beyond my expectatn, he had this pla reactn and told me he was gay too, i told him i didnt believe him, i mean he was the most straight guy you uld fd school and uld get any girl he wanted, to prove his pot he jt kissed me there and then, i had a uple of girliends before but there he was my first boyiend and te are still together today but most of all im jt happy i have someone i n talk to and who unrstands me.
Sce i was ltle i knew i was not like all the other guys, i ually was terted on other boys and not on grils, and i knew this was \"wrong\" but i didn\'t do anythg bee i was to ltle to unrstand what was beg \"gay\". So, at the age of 11 i had my first girliend (of urse we were both ltle and was nothg ser), i knew that i really didn\'t feel anythg for her, but i jt wanted to go out wh her to prove my self that i was not gay... Next year (still tryg to prove myself i was not gay) i dated this girl aga, but this time thgs were a ltle b more ser, she was more to thgs like kissg, of urse this was not ol wh me, bee i didn\'t want to kiss her at all; well nothg happend and this time she broke up wh me.
But i kept tellg myself \"i\'m not gay\" or \"i choose not to be gay\", so once aga i tryed havg an other girliend (this is the only time i uld say i kd of fell love wh a gril); this was much more ser: i met her parents, she met me, and wh her i kissed a lot of tim...
IN 'LAST CALL', A SERIAL KILLER TARGETS MANHATTAN'S '90S GAY BARS. INSI THE TE STORY
After this i knew i was gay but i jt uldn\'t accept , there was no way that i uld accept myself as gay, my fay wouldnt accept , they\'re pretty relig and they always talk of gay people as somethg totally crazy, \"sick and wrong people\". So whoever you are, wherever you are, and whichever your se is, i tell you: follow your heart and not your nscience, dont loose your time tellg your self you\'re not gay, bee that\'s not gonna change this fact. I then had a strg of boys of my own age who I was havg sexual relatnships wh at the same timethere was my bt iend who I was ser about and I really liked him but he was pletely homophobic and jt said he did for the lgh so I never told him how i felt.
That pass and my 11th gra i was the honor roll so me and another girliend were takg AP Blogy she new Israel so he told her that was gay so then she told me that he was gay and told my self hey Daniel this is your chance to ask him out but i was shy to tell him. My iend didn't knew that i was gay until one day she ask me Daniel are you gay and i told her y that was the first per son that knew wh that she gave me the urage to tell my other iends that i was gay and they accept me by really i am. They were talkg and i was dog my tt so she had fish first than me than told me to move by him and we started to talk and i felt somethg my stomach we talk about our personal life and he told me that he was bisexual and i told them that i was gay he was shocked bee we e to talk but i never told him that i was gay.
In 1984, when Calv Burde was awag sentencg for allegedly stabbg his gay lover to ath, the prosecutg attorney enuraged the jury his closg remarks to award Burde the ath penalty, rather than life prison, on the grounds that sendg a gay man to prison was ak to sendg a kid to a ndy store. His ath sentence was later overturned (mostly bee Burde's public fenr had slept through much of his trial), but the homophobic thkg – that prison is some kd of paradise for gay men – lgers realy of life prison for homosexuals and transgenr dividuals do not appear to reflect this myth.