Army’s first openly gay general retir after spirg others | Article | The Uned Stat Army

Contents:

• A GAY VETERAN REMEMBERS SERVG IN SILENCE
• FOR GAY UPL HOPG FOR A ARY BURIAL, THE FIGHT FOR LOVE DON’T END WH ATH
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• PRIMARY SOURCE SET: GAY MEN THE ARY

A GAY VETERAN REMEMBERS SERVG IN SILENCE

A Gay Veteran Remembers Servg In Silence. Joseph Patton, at home Santa Moni, Calif., told StoryCorps last year that he was given an unsirable discharge for beg iends wh openly gay men the ary. Des before openly gay Amerins were legally allowed to serve the ary, Joseph Patton, a gay man, served silence.

" The 1993 Clton-era policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" took an outright ban on gay service members and replaced wh a policy that allowed homosexual and bisexual people to serve the ary as long as they didn't reveal their sexual orientatn.

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

When he served, Patton relled top ary brass actively enforcg the ban when he went to a gay bar San Diego wh other service members. "They had ary police walkg around to check and see if there were any service men any of the gay bars, " he said. Although Patton kept his sexual orientatn private, he was ultimately penalized bee he was part of a social circle that clud gay men who opened up to learship about their sexualy.

And I was kicked out of the service for beg iends wh a homosexual, " he relled.

”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. Ralph Earl via Getty ImagWhout this gay ary geni, the Contental army might not have won the Revolutnary War. Friedrich von Stben joed the Pssian army as a teen, eventually beg an ai--mp to Frerick the Great, who was also mored to be gay.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

But In 1763, at 33, Stben was unceremonly discharged “unr a cloud, hound by accatns of havg relatns wh young men, ” acrdg to The Gay and Lbian Review.

"COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS

Acrdg to Randy Shilts’ “Conduct Unbeg: Gays and Lbians the U.

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.

PRIMARY SOURCE SET: GAY MEN THE ARY

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.