There's one U.S. ernment stutn that still crimaliz nsensual gay sex: the ary.
Contents:
- TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
- "ES MáS GRAVE SER GAY QUE RPTO": MILAR HOMOSEXUAL EN VENEZUELA ENENTAN CáRCEL O EXPULSIóN
- MILAR GAY, ¿CóMO SE VIVE LA HOMOSEXUALIDAD EN LOS CUARTEL?
- RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN
- IN 1994, THE U.S. MILARY ACTUALLY CONSIRED BUILDG A “GAY BOMB”
- GAYS THE MILARY
TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
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 * militar gay existe *
The are the voic explag what has been like to be a gay man1 the Amerin ary over the prev seventy or so years, om World War II veterans their late eighti to young servicemen on active duty. "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. " Gay people were allowed the ary but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexualy; to facilate this, all members of the ary were also prohibed om quirg about anyone’s possible orientatn.
And therefore few people realized that the first Amerin serly wound the vasn of Iraq durg the send Gulf war was a gay Alva signed up, before "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, " he had to lie on his paperwork. Lbians have suffered unr the same prohibns and prejudic and share many of the same experienc, as well as some that are distct, but this article ncentrat on the experience of gay men. 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.
(The meetgs have been arranged through a private onle work lled OutServe, set up only last year, which allows gay and lbian servicepeople a safe and secure way of fdg and munitg wh one another. In the shadow of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, " whenever gay servicemen did face any kd of homophobic harassment, they were powerls to draw attentn to whout potentially triggerg the end of their ary reer. 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 .
"ES MáS GRAVE SER GAY QUE RPTO": MILAR HOMOSEXUAL EN VENEZUELA ENENTAN CáRCEL O EXPULSIóN
The ia of a gay bomb me om a sire to bilate enemi but not necsarily kill them. The proposed bomb would nta strong aphrodisiacs and make soldiers "sexually irristible" to each other. * militar gay existe *
Anyone who gets off thkg that ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ unr the Bh admistratn anyone uld have gone and said, ’Hey, I’m beg antagonized unr the prciple that I might be gay’ and feel safe is absurd. 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 Man’s Vietnam"Back the ’50s Oregon, " rells Tom Norton (Army, 1968-71), "they were still puttg people jail for homosexual activy, and that certaly sends a strong msage to a young kid.
MILAR GAY, ¿CóMO SE VIVE LA HOMOSEXUALIDAD EN LOS CUARTEL?
U.K. Prime Mister Rishi Sunak has apologized for the treatment of gay veterans by sayg that a prev ban on LGBTQ+ people servg the U.K. ary was “an appallg failure of the Brish state.” * militar gay existe *
"Norton wasn’t sexually active Vietnam—"I would numb myself and avoid anythg sexual"—and was only years later that he realized that some of the men his social circle there were gay.
"Air Force #2: "There’s one good iend that I thought about tellg, but always right when I thk, ’Okay, ’s ol to tell him, ’ he’ll say somethg that is kd of weird about gay people.
’ 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. One Man’s Secret Too ManyIt’s temptg to see gay servicemen’s entire ary existence through the prism of this sgle issue—the mpaigner, the opprsed, the stoic endurer—and as the totaly of who they are.
RISHI SUNAK APOLOGIS TO LGBT VETERANS FOR PAST ARMED FORC GAY BAN
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. "Navy #3: "Nobody joed up to be ’the un gay guy, ’ but that’s who you’re gog to be, and I thk ’s cumbent on who are senr to basilly intify ourselv so that younger kids n look and say, ’Hey, is okay.
IN 1994, THE U.S. MILARY ACTUALLY CONSIRED BUILDG A “GAY BOMB”
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. "Actos ntra natura" puen arrear tr años cárcel y una salida shonrosa, según el Código Orgáni Jticia Milar vigente, lo que obliga a ar homosexual a varias reformas, la más reciente en septiembre 2021, el código mantiene amovible te artículo, pe a pedidos rogación hechos por activistas ante el Parlamento, mayoría oficialista. "Era tal la prión que se me ía el bello" Fuerza Armada ha sido acada vlacn sistemátis rechos humanos en el ntrol prottas, lo que niega su cú "primera pregunta que te hacen en la entrevista gro ¿cuál su clación sexual: homosexual, bisexual o heterosexual?
"Estaba tan cepcnado que cidí irme", sostiene José, que ahora tá exiliado en Españ por homosexualPara Rafael -quien pi mantener su nombre real bajo rerva-, fue un encuentro sual en su apartamento lo que le stó su rrera. "Tú verás si la hac por la vía fácil o la difícil", relata que le dijeron, rerdando vejacn que cluyeron una peba forense anorrectal s su cado por la Fislía ar para rmarle que era vtigado "por homosexual". ) n una reforma o una sentencia la sala nstucnal l TSJ, o ha sucedido en Colombia y Perú", apunta el abogado Kelvi Zambrano, la ONG Coalición por los Derechos Humanos y la obstante, en os país, o en otros Latoaméri, si bien no ilegal ser un ar gay, po Venezuela, la discrimación trascien los cuartel.
"La homosexualidad no se vive en los cuartel", asegura a VICE News una joven soldado que parte su vida n una suboficial a ndición prervar su relación un secreto solo ntro l cuerpo y el silenc, asegura, la úni manera garantizar que la rrera su pareja no se eche a perr por la tolerancia los mandos más retrógrados, que aún pan los muchos los rgos mayor rponsabilidad en las Fuerzas Armadas pañolas.
GAYS THE MILARY
En su cuartel, dice, tiene nstancia 5 sos en los que la homosexualidad una verdad a voc que se oculta por miedo a las repercn que ello pueda nllevar en térmos laboral y relación n los pañ l armar pue pasar factura.