Love and ath: The legacy of Congrsnal Cemetery’s ‘Gay Corner’ - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• LGBT VETERANS BOOTED OUT OF ARMY FOR BEG GAY W RIGHT TO LAY WREATH AT CENOTAPH
• LOVE AND ATH: THE LEGACY OF CONGRSNAL CEMETERY’S ‘GAY CORNER’
• JEFEY EPSTE CELEBRAT GAY PRI OM THE GRAVE
• FOR GAY UPL HOPG FOR A ARY BURIAL, THE FIGHT FOR LOVE DON’T END WH ATH
• ANTI-GAY GROUP PROTTS AT NATNAL CEMETERY
• ISRAELI ARY ACCED OF STAGG GAY PRI PHOTO

LGBT VETERANS BOOTED OUT OF ARMY FOR BEG GAY W RIGHT TO LAY WREATH AT CENOTAPH

Up to 20, 000 servicemen and women were dismissed om the armed forc for beg gay and some had their medals stripped - now LGBT support group Fightg Wh Pri has won the right to jo the march-pastLGBT support group Fightg Wh Pri has at last won the right to jo the marchForc veterans jailed or booted out for beg gay will lay an official wreath at the Cenotaph for the first time on Remembrance Sunday.

Elae will be joed the ont rank of the LGBT ntgent by former Navy medic Chris Fergon, 60, and ex-naval officer Dunn Ltig Prean, 62, who add: “There’s a real sense of pri that there will be people who are openly gay marchg.

LOVE AND ATH: THE LEGACY OF CONGRSNAL CEMETERY’S ‘GAY CORNER’

It is right gay people are reprented – but this is about all those who gave their liv for their untry. Although homosexualy was legalised Bra 1967 remaed a crimal offence the ary until 2000. Up to 20, 000 gay servicemen and women were dismissed om the armed forc, while others were jailed.

JEFEY EPSTE CELEBRAT GAY PRI OM THE GRAVE

” But Sharon, of Donster, revealed she was gay after bullyg by ary vtigators and male soldiers. She said: “I didn’t know I was gay when I joed up.

Spicn began to fall on me bee I had gay iends, then all spiralled.

But when the two-month nflict end the Special Invtigatns Branch arrted him after fdg out he was gay. Ex-naval officer Dunn Ltig-Prean said was right gay people were reprented. Along wh three other gay ex-Forc personnel, Dunn Ltig-Prean took the MoD to the European Court of Human Rights 1999 – leadg to the gay ban beg lifted.

FOR GAY UPL HOPG FOR A ARY BURIAL, THE FIGHT FOR LOVE DON’T END WH ATH

Dunn was on stroyer HMS Newstle 1994 – and set to be a ary assistant to then PM John Major - when his world me crashg down after he reported a bid to blackmail him over his homosexualy. ” Dunn later beme chair of Rank Outsirs, mpaigng agast the gays ban.

ANTI-GAY GROUP PROTTS AT NATNAL CEMETERY

Bra uld follow leads by the US, Canada and Germany who have all set up pensatn schem for gay troops hound out. LGBT prsure group Stonewall led the charge to get the forc gay ban lifted 1998 and that rulted the landmark cisn by the European Court of Human Rights.

Now all three servic actively rec gay men and lbians and they send recg teams out to pri events. In a quiet neighborhood of Southeast Washgton, Leonard Matlovich has been a persistent advote for gay rights sce the 1980s. Instead, he — or rather his tombstone — n be found Congrsnal Cemetery, which claims to be the world’s only graveyard wh an LGBTQ, why is Matlovich buried here — a bulic, 35-acre stretch of land near the Anastia River and RFK Stadium — and why did “Gay Corner, ” as some refer to , velop unr the cherry tre near his 6-by-8-foot grane grave marker?

Part of the answer is a 10-send walk away: the fenced- grave of the untry’s most notor homophobe, J. “It was kd of a middle fger to Hoover, ” says Pl Williams, the cemetery’s much of the mid-20th century, Hoover’s FBI bugged, harassed and attacked gays wh the same vrlic vilence that the agency ed to go after civil rights lears, antiwar activists, alleged munists and others emed “viant” threats to the natn.

ISRAELI ARY ACCED OF STAGG GAY PRI PHOTO

Hoover himself was, of urse, believed to be gay — and Tolson was thought (though never proved) to have been his romantic partner — but don’t expect to hear about that if you vis the cemetery.