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

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
• I WAS GAY THE BRISH ARMY WHEN WAS ILLEGAL. IT DROVE ME TO DRK AND AN ATTEMPT ON MY OWN LIFE
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• I WAS AN OFFICER IN THE INDIAN ARMY, I'M GAY AND VERY PROUD
• MILARY DRAFT POSSIBILY WEIGHED HEAVILY ON GAY MEN THE ‘80S
• CAN YOU SERVE THE ARY IF YOU ARE GAY?

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

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.

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.

I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK

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. 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.

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. “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. Milary psychiatrists theorized that heterosexual mal uld participate homosexual acts while alg wh the strs of war due to the lack of ‘normal’ sexual outlets war-torn areas.

I WAS GAY THE BRISH ARMY WHEN WAS ILLEGAL. IT DROVE ME TO DRK AND AN ATTEMPT ON MY OWN LIFE

“When was ascertaed that the basis of the maladjtment was homosexualy and this was reported to the dividual’s mandg officer, the subject ually received a ‘blue’ discharge, ” said Lt. Gay servicemen and women are protected unr the same laws as any other person and offered the same opportuni to excel and live wh a cent qualy of life whout fear of stroyg their reers.

“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.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer.

Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.

“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”.

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

Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN. “There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.

MILARY DRAFT POSSIBILY WEIGHED HEAVILY ON GAY MEN THE ‘80S

Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space.

CAN YOU SERVE THE ARY IF YOU ARE GAY?

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.

"An employer who fir an dividual for beg homosexual or transgenr fir that person for tras or actns would not have qutned members of a different sex, ” Jtice Neil Gorsuch wrote the cisn. 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. ”The apology me after an pennt review published Wednday timated that hundreds, if not thoands, of veterans were dismissed or suffered unr an official ban on homosexualy the U.

“As today’s report mak clear, that perd many endured the most horrific sexual abe and vlence, homophobic bullyg and harassment, all while bravely servg this untry, " Sunak told Parliament.

Veterans' ttimoni “give shockg evince of a culture of homophobia, and of bullyg, blackmail and sexual asslts, abive vtigatns to sexual orientatn and sexual preference, disgraceful medil examatns, cludg nversn therapy, ” the report said. “From a personal pot of view, the ban affected me terms of who I was and what I uldn’t be for 34 years, " Holm ban on homosexualy was abandoned 2000, when the European Court of Human Rights led favor of four service personnel who were vtigated and then discharged bee of their sexualy.

Trevor relled: “I had a ltle straple that I ed to e: ‘I and others like me are opprsed by the very society that expects to lay down our liv s fence, but which supports the view that homosexualy is illegal the armed forc.

“‘This discrimatn do not take to acunt that the eedom to live and speak out a mocratic society was won, amongst others, by gay men and lbian women who bravely fought the first and send world wars. Trevor has sce joed the Royal Brish Legn’s LGBTQ+ and Alli branch, which was set up January 2019 to provi a valuable space for LGBT+ servicepeople to nnect, ee om homophobia which still sometim pervas veterans’ spac.

Has a history of repeatedly sharg unfound nspiraci that man-ma chemils the environment uld be makg children gay or transgenr and g the femizatn of boys and masculizatn of girls. The basels claim that chemils – particularly tap water – uld turn people gay has gaed populary wh nspiracy theorists over the years, most memorably wh nservative rad host Alex Jon, who said chemils the water were “turng the igg’ ogs gay.”.

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. Send, sce disclosure of sexual orientatn is officially prohibed, gay, lbian, and bisexual service members are liable to avoid accsg mental health servic when they need them (Johnson & Buhrke, 2006).