"Comg Out Unr Fire": The Story of Gay and Lbian Servicemembers | The Natnal WWII Mm | New Orleans

Contents:

• GAY SOLDIERS HARASSED: WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• GAY SOLDIERS CRICIZED - WHAT WOULD YOU DO
• BOOS HEARD AT GOP DEBATE AFTER GAY SOLDIER ASKS ABOUT 'DON'T ASK'
• GAY THE MILARY
• "COMG OUT UNR FIRE": THE STORY OF GAY AND LBIAN SERVICEMEMBERS
• HOW MANY GAY SOLDIERS ARE THERE?

GAY SOLDIERS HARASSED: WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

J., to see how people felt about openly gay servicemen showg affectn public.

Dpe observg the soldiers hug each other and stroke each other's legs, some ders later told they did not realize the soldiers were supposed to be a gay uple, even though they had no problem wh the mens' Soldiers HarassedMar Battenurt was one der who seemed to ignore the soldiers' affectn as well as our stigator who eventually nonted them. Smh thanked the "serviceman" and lled him a hero, even after he disvered the soldier was gay. "We wonred what would happen when we swched our actors and swapped out the gay men for gay women.

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.

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

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.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

It was still four months before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell, ” a double-edged policy prohibg askg any service member about his or her sexualy while enforcg a ban on openly gay service members. Mike and Abe were to mentor me on how to survive as a gay serviceman. As long as gay soldiers kept their mouths shut, the burn of proof fell on those makg the accatns.

A uple were more elaborate: tailed scriptns of what might happen to me if I was ught alone, and proclamatns about the wrongns of gays the ary. There are moments when feels wrong to claim my stat as a veteran; as if beg gay ma me ls of a soldier and somehow validated my service.

GAY SOLDIERS CRICIZED - WHAT WOULD YOU DO

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.

BOOS HEARD AT GOP DEBATE AFTER GAY SOLDIER ASKS ABOUT 'DON'T ASK'

What Would You Do: Male soldier berated bee of homosexualyIn a rtrant, a male soldier uniform is stg at a table when a woman at another table begs to flirt.

GAY THE MILARY

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. Life Today as a Gay ServicemanHow we got here: In 1992, many people thought that the discrimatn was nearly over. "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. Gay people were only acceptable, effect, to the gree to which they uld succsfully masquera as nongay. Seventeen years which gay servicemen have existed a paradoxil kd of herworld.

Servicemen were advised that until then the policy would still apply, and that they uld potentially face s sanctns if they intify themselv publicly as gay. ’ "Air Force #1: "Two of my iends were disvered, both officers—’s a long and arduo procs for an officer to get kicked out for beg gay.

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

"Air Force #2 (senr airman, three years): "No one at my job would ever, ever spect that I was gay at all. And you’re good at your job—a gay person wouldn’t be good at his job, so obvly you’re not gay.

You’re a Mare, you don’t md gettg dirty, gog out to the field and not showerg for weeks at a, if you were gay, when you have to shower wh all the other guys you’d get all exced. You’re not gettg exced so you’re clearly not gay.

I mean, if you want to hi, the Mare Corps is one of the bt plac to do that, bee nobody wants to adm they are standg next to a gay guy.

HOW MANY GAY SOLDIERS ARE THERE?

Nobody wants to adm that they have gone to war wh gay people. I had ma about halfway through and the recer was trated wh how long was takg me, and he said, ’Well, basilly, are you gay? One Man’s Operatn Iraqi FreedomMany gay servicemen the morn era—cludg Eric Alva (Mar, 1991–2004)—have pleted long ary reers whout their sexualy ever beg revealed.

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 first Amerin jured the Iraq war is a gay Mare. For gay ary members who choose to do so, there has been the extra burn that their partners mt rema visible.