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

* gay army training *

WASHINGTON -- Soldiers reprentg the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny virtually celebrated Pri Month Thursday as part of a discsn that marked another step the Army’s growg regnn toward the LGBTQ muny. 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.

”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.

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

Only sce 2011 have openly gay, lbian, and bisexual people been permted to serve * gay army training *

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 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. In rponse, and apparently to monstrate his petency his assigned posn, the nonmissned officer had taken upon himself to approach the person he nsired cled toward mtg a siar offense the future: me, the only openly gay soldier my un. Together we approached our un’s learship, where she sisted that the ments had stemmed om the reprentative’s own homophobic feelgs and remend that he be reprimand and removed om his posn as the un’s sexual harassment watchdog.

THE ELE GAY ARMY OF ANCIENT GREECETHE SACRED BAND OF THEB FEATED EVEN THE SPARTANSPETER PRKAR·FOLLOWPUBLISHED LSONS OM HISTORY·4 M READ·OCT 11, 2020--3SHAREGREEK WARRRS — ARTISTIC IMAGE (IMAGE:ARTSTATN/@ALIAKSANDR TRYZON)THE SACRED BAND WAS AN ELE ARY UN OM THEB PRISG 150 GAY UPL. AT THE BATTLE OF LCTRA 371 BC, THE 300 GAY WARRRS LED THE THEBAN ARMY AGAST THE SPARTAN ARMY. THE THEBANS WON AND SHATTERED THE SPARTAN NTROL OF GREECE.THE GREEK VIEW ON GAY WARRRSA MALE UPLE ENGAGG TERCRAL SEX. DEPICTED ON ANCIENT GREEK POTTERY (IMAGE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)THE THEBANS BELIEVED GAY WARRRS FOUGHT BETTER ORR TO IMPRS AND PROTECT THEIR LOVERS. IF A LOVER FELL DURG A BATTLE, HIS PARTNER WOULD FIGHT EVEN HARR TO AVENGE HIS ATH.THREE THOAND YEARS AGO ANCIENT GREECE, BEG GAY OR LBIAN WAS NOT A CRIME. IN FACT, CERTA SUATNS, THE GREEKS EVEN ENURAGED HOMOSEXUAL RELATNSHIPS.YOUNG BOYS EXCHANGED ROMANTIC FAVORS FOR THE KNOWLEDGE PROVID BY THEIR OLR TUTORS. FATHERS WOULD PRAY TO THE GODS FOR THEIR SONS TO BE ATTRACTIVE BEE MEANT A BETTER MENTOR. SUCH RELATNSHIPS LASTED UNTIL THE YOUNG BOYS REACHED ADULTHOOD.SOLDIERS WOULD FORM ROMANTIC RELATNSHIPS WH ONE ANOTHER TO BOOST THEIR MORALE.THE GREEK SOCIETY DIFFERENTIATED BETWEEN ACTIVE AND PASSIVE ROL BOTH GENRS TOOK DURG SEX. AN ACTIVE ROLE, BEG A PERATOR, MEANT MASCULY, ADULTHOOD, AND PRTIGE. A PASSIVE ROLE, BEG PERATED, REPRENTED FEMY, YOUTH, AND SHAME.FOR A RECEIVG PARTNER, ANAL SEX WAS MEANG. INSTEAD, THEY ENGAGED TERCRAL SEX.THE MEMBERS OF THE SACRED BAND OF THEB WERE ROMANTIC PARTNERS. THEY LLED AN OLR PARTNER THE ERAST (‘LOVER’) AND A YOUNGER ONE THE EROMENOS (‘BELOVED’). EACH PAIR EXCHANGED SACRED VOWS AT THE TEMPLE OF IOLS, THE LOVER OF HERACL.FACTS ABOUT THE SACRED BAND OF THEB

Most lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr service members are still reluctant to disclose their sexual orientatn or inty. * gay army training *

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.

Ameri’s alli, cludg the Uned Kgdom, Canada, Israel, and Atralia, allow openly gay, lbian, and bisexual persons to serve the ary, and this has no adverse effect on ary reads or disciple (Belk, 2001, 2003; Belk & Bateman, 2003; Belk & Levt, 2001; Belk & McNichol, 2001).

Ary enacted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy 1993, about 12, 000 lbian, gay, and bisexual ary personnel have been voluntarily discharged solely bee of their sexual orientatn, at least 8% of whom had missn-cril skills.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

WASHINGTON -- Sce Maj. Gen. Tammy Smh, the ary’s hight-rankg openly gay officer, me out 2012, she has tried beg an example of livg... * gay army training *

Consistent wh a long-standg body of social psychology rearch based on Allport’s (1954) ntact hypothis, scientists have repeatedly found evince for rced prejudice levels toward gay, lbian or bisexual people among heterosexuals who are acquated wh openly gay, lbian or bisexual members of society (e. The thors of a prehensive recent meta-analysis of the last six s of rearch this area monstrate that the rrelatn of ntact between heterosexuals and gay and lbian persons wh lower levels of sexual prejudice is signifintly higher than prejudice rctn lked to ntact wh any other target group, e.

MARQUATE'S GAY MILARY FICTN

The Uned Stat ary stggled wh s stance on gay service members for s prr to the signg of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” 1993 by former Print Bill Clton., * gay army training *

The percentage of ary service members strongly opposed to allowg gay and lbian persons serve the ary has cled nsirably over the last , wh only 5% of personnel the ary a 2006 poll statg that they are “very unfortable” teractg wh gay and lbian persons the ary, ntrasted wh 73% who were somewhat or very fortable this regard (Zogby et al., 2006).

”A earlier, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” allowed gays and lbians to serve openly after centuri of hidg, persecutn and dishonorable, we salute some of the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer service members who paved the way for a more clive force. 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.

IN SOUTH KOREA, GAY SOLDIERS CAN SERVE. BUT THEY MIGHT BE PROSECUTED.

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 * gay army training *

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. In the 1970s, Kameny bee the first openly gay ndidate for Congrs and challenged the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s diagnosis of homosexualy as a mental disorr, acrdg to a 2015 Department of Labor 2009, the U.

Wh urage and strength, you fought back, ” said OPM Director John Berry, himself an out gay man, the Washgton Post December 2010, Kameny was ved to the Whe Hoe to wns Print Barack Obama sign the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” to law.

”While the lg Clackum’s favor turned on due procs, rather than a rejectn of the ban on gays the ary, was the first time the Armed Forc had to answer for attacks on LGBTQ service MilkHarvey Milk outsi his mera shop San Francis 1977. 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. “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.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Mih Merrill is not like you. Merrill is a gay man who enlisted for a bat arms un — that is, the people who do the fightg — as soon as Don't Ask Don't Tell end. Right now, he's Afghanistan and this is his story. * gay army training *

“That is why I say to all Amerins, gay or straight, who want nothg more than to fend this untry uniform: Your untry needs you, your untry wants you, and we will be honored to wele you to the ranks of the ft ary the world has ever known, ” stated Obama.

Kim is one of an creasg number of gay or transgenr soldiers who have been persecuted unr Article 92-6 of the Army Crimal Act, which has been ed to out them and punish them for nsensual sex, Amnty Internatnal said a report released on Article 92-6, “anal sex and other cent acts” between ary personnel n be punished by up to two years prison, even if they take place off base, while the soldiers are off duty and by mutual nsent.

But nservative Christian groups have also lated monstratns agast homosexualy major ci, often llg gay soldiers a threat to ary groups helped to scuttle attempts Parliament to pass an anti-discrimatn law, urged on South Korea by the Uned Natns, that would give sexual mori the same protectns that other mory groups have. Amnty Internatnal’s report scrib vivid tail how antigay attus have translated to physil and sexual abe wh the former soldier told the rights group he had been forced to have oral and anal sex wh another gay soldier, as a superr tnted, “Don’t you want to have sex wh a womanlike man?

THE REVOLUTNARY WAR HERO WHO WAS OPENLY GAY

"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. "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. 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.

ONE GAY MAN'S ARMY

’ 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. ’" 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.

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. Naval Hospal Rota Spa posted a Pri graphic created by the Milary Health System, and said, “The Defense Health Agency (DHA) regniz the work of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr Amerins tablishg a ee natn that valu diversy, a val ponent of a ee natn. " Merrill wasn't even out of the closet yet — not to his fellow soldiers, not to his fay, and not even pletely to you don't know ary jargon, your ey might glaze over durg bat about the policy trici termg who gets to fight for their untry, whether 's gay soldiers or women bat or whatever.

GAYS THE MILARY: NEW FACTS CONQUER OLD TABOOS

Argued agast "a major cultural and policy change the middle of a war, " cg a Pentagon survey that "clearly stat that over 40 percent of our bat arms soldiers believe" a gay soldier their ranks would hurt effectivens, tst, and morale. 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. Figure 1 (above) shows that today, ntrast to 1993, more than half of Amerins support the right of gay men and women to choose their liftyle, and almost everyone agre that gay people should have equal rights job opportuni.

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. Ary policy statg that “homosexualy is patible wh ary service” is based on the premise that a gay ary member's prence “adversely affects the abily of the Milary Servic to mata disciple, good orr, and morale. Meanwhile, rat of HIV fectn the ary are unlikely to crease if currently servg gay men are able to disclose their sexual orientatn—even if the number of gay ary members creas—bee of improved HIV screeng polici and the small actn of gay personnel.

BT GAY MILARY

Deprsn, anxiety, suici, bge drkg, and substance abe are more mon among gay dividuals but are unlikely to substantially affect reads, given the overall prevalence of the problems the ary and the small percentage of gay service members.

Potential problems wh the new policy that were equently mentned clud harassment of gay service members by heterosexuals, sexual harassment of heterosexuals by gay service members, creased admistrative workload, and chang ary culture and muny life. When asked to intify personal sts that they attributed to the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, the vast majory of the 208 rponnts said had put gay personnel at risk for blackmail or manipulatn and had an adverse effect on their personal and un relatnships. Regardg an issue often ced as important for retentn cisns, almost all gay rponnts (93 percent) agreed that “gays and lbians the ary have pennts who are missg out on opportuni and support systems that other ary fai n e.

Fellow wrer and airman Edward Field summed up nicely his short memoir when he noted the Amerin army had a “gay world built to ”, even if was very different to the gay inti wh which we are faiar today. As one Amerin sailor statned New Caledonia explaed to naval thori 1943 “ is more of the feme tra to want somethg that is mascule … It is the thrill of havg a [butch] man, and not another [effemate] homosexual”.

I WAS AN OFFICER IN THE INDIAN ARMY, I'M GAY AND VERY PROUD

Wh a day of s publitn, the Natnal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) announced would open an vtigatn to “this ugly se” prsure om the regnal ernor, the rector of the Ulyanovsk Instute of Civil Aviatn, Sergei Krasnov, likened the ts’ suatn to Psy such an “unfivable” disgrace to veterans, he said, they uld be expelled, perhaps, even, tried unr Rsia’s ntroversial anti-homosexual laws.

I feared I would be rejected by people I once was iends wh, terrified that the learship above me would look at me as ls of a man, or that any acplishment I have will be attributed to me beg gay, and not my mer. Corrra Dews, 24, was livg At, Texas, and openly gay before he joed the Army 2011, a uple of months before the end of "don't ask, don't tell, " the policy that kept gay soldiers the closet at the risk of losg their jobs. "Last year, wh the overturng of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, the Army extend benefs to same-sex spo, furtherg the full cln of gay and lbian soldiers the, now a fueler wh 2nd Battaln, 44th Air Defense Artillery, 101st Stament Briga, is one of seven gay male soldiers who've served at Fort Campbell who recently opened up about their experienc servg the Army before and after the end of DADT and Dews was able to walk away, some went through more ser measur to hi their sexualy the days when exposure uld mean the end of a reer.

He is also the chapter lear for Kentucky's OutServe-SLDN, a natnal anizatn dited to LGBT equaly and endg harassment and discrimatn based on sexual orientatn or genr inty the wasn't always so open – he was married to a woman for several years an effort to nceal his homosexualy.

WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK

"Everybody looks at you, and then when your PT (physil trag) is not as high as anybody else, 'Oh he's the gay kid – don't expect him to n that fast, '" Johnson agre, pecially when to physilly mandg Army rol. "Soldiers firstLike any other soldier, gay soldiers fd their value not their sexual orientatn but how they perform their won his battaln's Soldier of the Quarter almost three months ago and soon will be petg for the 101st Airborne Divisn's Soldier of the Year.

Pivotal momentThe way Dews' se was handled speaks volum about the change that's taken place at Fort Campbell om 15 years ago, when, one cint, harassment of a gay soldier was allowed to ntue to the pot of Fourth of July weekend 1999, 21-year-old Pfc. His superrs didn't put a stop to the slayg happened six years after the DADT policy was put place, and Wchell's ath led to a re-examatn of the policy and a ser examatn of the learship on at Fort Campbell, harassment of gay soldiers is not taken lightly. Brian DeSantis, 101st Airborne and Fort Campbell spokman, a statement issued for this the openPerhaps the biggt change is that gay soldiers are now able to openly take part fay life wh their same-sex spo.

GAY SOLDIERS AT FORT CAMPBELL OPEN UP ON G OUT

In the early morng hours of June 28, 1969, rponse to a police raid and vlence toward homosexuals at the Stonewall Inn Manhattan, members of the gay muny spontaneoly began a seri of monstratns om the unjt actns now known as the Stonewall rts.

“Basic Trag” | Marquate's Gay Milary Fictn

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