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
Contents:
- 07 | MYTHS OF WAR: GAY SERVICEMEN VIETNAM
- A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER
- TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
- FOR GAY UPL HOPG FOR A ARY BURIAL, THE FIGHT FOR LOVE DON’T END WH ATH
07 | MYTHS OF WAR: GAY SERVICEMEN VIETNAM
* gay vietnam veterans *
( Tim Page/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Imag)Anyone uld be discharged om the Atralian armed forc for gay sexual behavur Vietnam.
And sce nobody wanted to fight the Vietnam War – and gay men were exced natnal service — there mt have been no gay people on Atralian ary bas Vietnam, right? Larry Sanrs wr about servg the army, where he uld have been arrted for beg gay durg a very unpopular war.
A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER
The day Larry Sanrs registered for the draft, one qutn buried the middle of a long qutnnaire smacked him the face: “Do you intify as a homosexual or ever had sexual feelgs for persons of the same sex?
TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
At the time Sanrs registered for the draft 1967, no one was clear about what happened to someone who admted beg gay. When I registered for the draft jt a few years later, I was told not to say I was gay, bee they would make you prove .
How do someone not datg anyone “prove” they’re gay? He didn’t really intify as homosexual. And as a gay soldier, he didn’t particularly relate to those who served wh him.
And what about beg a gay soldier an army that forba ? Before "don't ask, don't tell" was officially repealed for gay, lbian, and bisexual ary personnel 2011, a photo of a male Mare drag uld have land him hot water. "Lbian, gay, and bisexual ary personnel had been servg our untry for s whout receivg equal protectn, while transgenr troops are still prohibed om servg openly.
FOR GAY UPL HOPG FOR A ARY BURIAL, THE FIGHT FOR LOVE DON’T END WH ATH
"As a gay man, I n relate to what is still the opprsive stigma of homosexualy.
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.