I'm a Gay Army Officer—Queer Troops Mt Fight Back

Contents:

• I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
• RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN
• PM'S APOLOGY FOR PAST GAY BAN WELED BY SHROPSHIRE VETERAN
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• US ARMY GENERAL COM OUT AS GAY, INTRODUC HIS ‘HBAND’ AT PENTAGON GAY PRI EVENT
• GAYS THE MILARY: NEW FACTS CONQUER OLD TABOOS
• YOUNG AND LONELY: WHY SOME MILARY MEN REALLY FEAR LGBT PEOPLE AND GAY SEX

I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK

I was one of few soldiers who joed the service before graduatg high school, but the admistratn at the time, which I believe was homophobic, chose to act as if I never existed bee of my queer hate that I experienced growg up on Long Island was my first enunter wh how others would treat me as a queer soldier. Her discharge om the ary over her homosexualy had turned her to an Tob/The New York Public LibraryPublished July 19, 2023Updated July 23, 2023Lilli Vcenz, who beme a gay rights activist the hhed, reprsive era before the Stonewall rebelln of 1969, when such a ncept srcely existed, makg a mark as a newspaper edor, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist voted to L.

RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN

Vicenz beme, by most acunts, the first lbian to picket the Whe Hoe support of equal rights for gay people as a member of the Mattache Society of Washgton, an early gay rights prott — the first of s kd, acrdg to the Library of Congrs — and others that followed were small but brought visibily to a movement s fancy.

Vcenz beme the first out lbian to appear on the ver of a natnal gay magaze, The Ladr, a publitn produced by the untry’s first lbian-rights group, the Dghters of Bilis, acrdg to a retrospective on her life and reer by Lillian Farman, a historian of lbian and gay her scbbed, all-Amerin looks, Dr. Vcenz looked like “every mother’s dream dghter, ” as Barbara Gtgs, The Ladr’s edor, put Vcenz also ntributed to the e on the other si of a mera, makg two 16-limeter films that were later hailed as signifint artifacts of the early gay rights first, tled “The Send-Largt Mory, ” documents a Mattache Society prott ont of Inpennce Hall Philalphia on July 4, morn ey, the black-and-whe film, roughly seven mut, seems anythg but seismic.

Promisg the ernment would implement the “vast majory” of Etherton’s remendatns, Wallace said he would fully update the Commons a formal bate about the issue after the about pensatn, Wallace said he hoped to fd “an elegant solutn that match the need and the requirements of those dividuals”, promisg to set this out after Kelly Holm, who served the army and me out as gay last year, was among mpaigners who weled the apology.

PM'S APOLOGY FOR PAST GAY BAN WELED BY SHROPSHIRE VETERAN

Image source, Emma RileyImage ptn, Rad operator Emma Riley was discharged om the Navy for beg a lbian the 1990sRishi Sunak has apologised for the historil treatment of LGBT veterans who were sacked or forced out of the ary for beg PM lled the ban an "appallg failure" of the Brish was illegal to be gay the Brish ary until 2000 - wh thoands of veterans thought to be affected. It heard shockg acunts of homophobia, bullyg, blackmail, sexual asslts, "disgraceful" medil examatns, and nversn mak 49 remendatns to the ernment cludg:Affected veterans to be given an "appropriate fancial reward" pped at £50m overallThe rtoratn of medals that had to be hand back on dismissal or dischargeThe clarifitn of pensn rights The prentatn of a special veterans' badgeThe ernment said would rpond full after summer of the veterans affected watched the PM's public of them, Emma Riley, 51, was a Royal Navy rad operator for three years before she was arrted and discharged for beg a lbian after tellg a lleague her sexualy the early told BBC News she weled the report, and hoped would be put to place "swiftly.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

"Olympian Dame Kelly Holm, who served the army and me out as gay last year, lled the publitn of the report a "historic moment", while Cathere Dixon, a former army officer who is now vice chair at Stonewall, said was "an important step towards jtice" for those whose ary reers were "ed" bee of their sexualy.

Many still have a crimal rerd to this also tails how some veterans faced a plete loss of e, while others were emed eligible to claim their pensn bee of their report more than 20 years after four servicemen and women, who were sacked for beg gay, won a se the European Court of Human Rights and overturned the armed forc chary Royal Brish Legn lled on the ernment to accept the report's remendatns chary's director general Charl Byrne weled both the report and Mr Sunak's "landmark apology", sayg many people who had dited their liv to the untry were "forced or felt prsured to leave the armed forc, and this mistreatment stroyed or shortened their reer". “From a personal pot of view, the ban affected me terms of who I was and what I uldn’t be for 34 years, ” Holm ban on homosexualy was abandoned 2000, when the European Court of Human Rights led favor of four service personnel who were vtigated and then discharged bee of their sexualy. Ms Macdonald said she had been ma to feel "shame" the 40 years Sunak ma the statement Parliament after a report to service personnel's treatment remend they be given a fancial reward and the PM should publicly lled the ban an "appallg failure" of the Brish was illegal to be gay the Brish ary until 2000 and Ms Macdonald was one of thoands of veterans thought to be ptn, Ms Macdonald joed at 19 and was a lance rporal the Women's Royal Army CorpsAfter hearg the statement, Ms Macdonald told BBC Rad Shropshire she had "lots of different emotns" and add: "It's such a historic day and 42 years on I never, ever dreamed that this would happen.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

“No longer will our untry be nied the service of thoands of patrtic Amerins who were forced to leave the ary – regardls of their skills, no matter their bravery or their zeal, no matter their years of exemplary performance – bee they happen to be gay, ” said former Print Barack Obama. "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.

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

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. "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.

US ARMY GENERAL COM OUT AS GAY, INTRODUC HIS ‘HBAND’ AT PENTAGON GAY PRI EVENT

’" 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.

But by then was hard to ignore the anxiety I felt durg required social activi — “mandatory fun, ” as ’s lled the ary — or the tensn om my fellow moment I cid to bee a soldier and the moment I chose to live openly as a gay man occurred so closely time that ’s hard to remember which me first.

Every memory evok an emotn: rage that I had to serve wh a nstant sense of fear of my fellow soldiers; paralyzg sadns for those who endured ab worse than I n know; and, the worst, guilt over the service members — gay or straight or transgenr — who died while servg the ary while my body is still whole.

GAYS THE MILARY: NEW FACTS CONQUER OLD TABOOS

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. “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.

YOUNG AND LONELY: WHY SOME MILARY MEN REALLY FEAR LGBT PEOPLE AND GAY SEX

), a member of the Senate Armed Servic Commtee, fired off a letter to Pata askg him why he offered a waiver of that prohibn to homosexual personnel, while at the same time allowg a Navy chapla to be punished for wearg his uniform to a pro-life event, or a Mare for attendg a Ron Pl mpaign event his uniform. “If the Navy n punish a chapla for participatg a pro-life event or a Mare for participatg a polil rally, stands to reason that the Defense Department should mata the same standard and preclu service members uniform om marchg a gay pri para, ” Inhofe challenged Pata.

In a separate statement, Inhofe exprsed his ncern that the Obama admistratn “ntu to force s liberal social agenda on the ary by promotg the homosexual agenda, mandatg the e of high-st green energy iativ, pursug abortn rights, and supprsg the ee exercise of relig liberti.

”The Army has been makg a staed effort to appeal to more diverse groups recent years, wh LGBT+, ethnic mory groups, and women remag severely unrreprented wh s ranks, particularly high-level om 2011 have openly gay, lbian, and bisexual people been permted to serve the US ary. C., and the Stben Para, held each September down New York’s Fifth KamenyFrank Kameny Kennedy / Tribune News Service via Getty ImagOne of the Foundg Fathers of the morn gay rights movement, Frank Kameny enlisted the Army 1943, servg Europe throughout World War II.

After the war, he earned a doctorate at Harvard Universy and tght astronomy at Geetown Universy, In 1957, Kameny had jt started workg for the Army Map Service, wh hop of beg an astront, when he was termated after vtigators unvered evince he was a, then 32, appealed the firg, argug that flatly labelg gay people a secury risk was “no ls od than discrimatn based upon relig or racial grounds. The jtic refed to hear the appeal, but marked the first time the high urt even nsired a civil rights se based on sexual orientatn — and galvanized Kameny to beg a lifelong activist for equaly for gays and years later, 1965, Kameny, Kay Tob and Barbara Gtgs started the Annual Remrs, the first anized picket protts for gay rights Ameri, held at Philalphia’s Inpennce Hall. That ugly dismissal cut Milk loose to pursue other terts — he tght high school on Long Island, worked at an surance firm and Wall Street brokerage New York Cy and ultimately opened a mera shop on Castro Street San Francis, where his activist reer began was one of the first openly gay elected officials the U.

This was tratg for those of workg the long fights agast trans poverty and crimalizatn — to see how the power of one nservative philanthropist uld create the illn that trans muni were sayg that this was our number one procs rells the histori of how gay and lbian advocy nservatized the s after the ‘60s and ‘70s, when wealthy whe donors built up anizatns that, rather than advotg agast police vlence and war, created agendas that sought hate crim legislatn (which giv more punishg power to prosecutors but do not rce vlence), marriage (which primarily benefs people wh rourc and stat they n share through marriage), and ary cln.

Ary due to their sexual orientatn, cludg an timated 14, 000 service members who were discharged unr "don't ask, don't tell, " durg the 17 years that was effect, acrdg to the rights activists and gay veterans, cludg former Army Litenant Dan Choi (4th L) and former Mare Corporal Evelyn Thomas (5th L), handcuff themselv to the fence of the Whe Hoe durg a prott Nov. "Given that large numbers of LGBTQ+ Veterans who were affected by prev homophobic and transphobic polici have not applied for a discharge upgra due to the perceptn that the procs uld be onero, we are hopeful that this policy statement enurag more of them to ntact VA to terme their eligibily for re and servic, " acrdg to a VA statement. The print directed that an executive orr reversg the ban on homosexuals the ary be prepared by July Edmonds/AP, FILE"Don't ask, don't tell, " was signed to law 1993 unr the admistratn of Print Bill Clton, who ially sought to end a World War II-era ban on homosexuals servg the backlash om some ary lears and members of Congrs, Clton managed to get support for an apparent promise, which would allow LGBTQ dividuals to serve the ary if they did not disclose their sexual his first term office, Print Barack Obama voiced his support for repealg the law.

1988: The rults of a jot report nducted by the DoD and the Defense Personnel Secury Rearch Edutn Center rerce the fdgs of a 1957 report claimg that gay and lbian dividuals enlisted the armed forc pose no signifint risk to secury (which had prevly been the ratnale for barrg gay dividuals om enlistg the ary).

""I do thk that the more time that pass wh a group of people beg visible and monstratg that they are first-class cizens, jt like their peers -- jt like everyone else -- the harr is to put the toothpaste back the tube and reverse those gas, " said Nathaniel Frank, thor of the 2009 book "Uniendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Unrm Ameri and Weakens the Milary" and a leadg expert on LGBT issu the ary. Between March 1 and October 1 of last year, more than 50 RAND rearchers om a wi range of discipl met wh lears of seven allied ari; vised domtic law enforcement anizatns, feral agenci, private rporatns, and universi; held foc groups wh service members; nducted a nfintial ter survey of gay and lbian service members; tracked chang public attus; and sured the amic lerature to update the nclns of our 1993 report. This natnally reprentative survey, which has followed 20, 745 adolcents sce high school graduatn datg back to 1994 and has asked them about their sexual orientatn and ary service, allows to timate what actn of ary men and women intify themselv as gay pared wh that of those who have no ary service.

Populatn suggt that about one-fourth of gay men, lbians, and bisexuals keep their sexual orientatn strictly secret; about one-fourth are pletely open about their sexual orientatn; and the other half fall somewhere the middle, disclosg their sexual orientatn to select dividuals. It is unclear if gay and lbian veterans will receive spoal benefs if they do not ri a state that regniz same-sex marriage; nservativ are attemptg to make easier for service members to harass gay and lbian troops by tablishg broad exemptns for the relig views of service members; transgenr Amerins are still prohibed om servg any pacy; and some veterans who were kicked out for beg gay or lbian are still fightg for a discharge upgra, which affects their abily to ga health re verage and fd employment.

— N6 (@SignHexa) May 12, 2021 The CIA has released a siar seri of recment ads over the last several months as part of a seri dubbed “Humans of CIA, ” cludg ads featurg an agent who scribed herself as a “cisgenr lennial, ” a man who “[grew] up gay a small Southern town, ” and a bld employee who talks about the agency’s ph to “create a more clive environment. READ MORE: The Supreme Court Rulgs That Have Shaped Gay Rights Ameri‘Scientific’ Attempts to Intify HomosexualsIn their effort to screen out queer nscripts, ary officials ran to a problem: They didn’t have a nclive way of intifyg them, beyond a set of subjectively terpreted “signs” such as “feme bodily characteristics” and “effemacy drs and manner, ” acrdg to Allan Bébé, thor of Comg Out Unr Fire: Gay Men and Women Durg World War II.

Jane Ward, thor of Not Gay: Sex between Straight Whe Men, says that the thkg surroundg the ruals is, “If you endure together this kd of mortifyg, huiatg and embarrassg homosexual act, then that not only toughens up your body, but will also build and strengthen that bond around you. Her discharge om the ary over her homosexualy had turned her to an activist.Cred...Kay Tob/The New York Public LibraryPublished July 19, 2023Updated July 23, 2023Lilli Vcenz, who beme a gay rights activist the hhed, reprsive era before the Stonewall rebelln of 1969, when such a ncept srcely existed, makg a mark as a newspaper edor, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist voted to L.G.B.T.Q. Vicenz beme, by most acunts, the first lbian to picket the Whe Hoe support of equal rights for gay people as a member of the Mattache Society of Washgton, an early gay rights anizatn.The prott — the first of s kd, acrdg to the Library of Congrs — and others that followed were small but brought visibily to a movement s fancy.“What did I want to acplish?” she told Gay Today about her early efforts wh the society.