GAZETTE Tampa Bay Gay and Lesbian News

By Tanya Baker
If an organization didn't want you, would you hang around and possibly give your life for it? What if you fought for its approval year after year and all you got was "it's okay to be you, just don't ever speak about it?" How would you feel about yourself deep inside knowing that you had to live a lie in order to serve the country you love, because if your real identity were known that same country might not love you back?

In spite of this type of treatment, gays continue to fight and die for America in its armed forces. The Defense Department's policy on homosexuality in the pre-"Don't ask, Don't tell" days was "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service." This, simply stated, meant that no matter how much loyalty, dedication, intelligence or discipline a soldier showed did not matter. What mattered was sexual orientation.

In 1989, Gerry E. Studds (D-Mass.), the first openly gay member of Congress wrote about the plight of a lesbian soldier who was facing the destruction of her military career due to the Defense Department's policy: "Her career, into which she had poured the energies and disciplines of a lifetime, was being destroyed. And for what? To satisfy a Defense Department policy of discrimination against homosexuals-a policy that is irrational, ineffective and incalculably harmful to both our nation's armed forces and to the significant component of those forces that is, notwithstanding the policy, lesbian or gay."

Mary Ann Humphrey wrote a book in 1990 entitled My Country, My Right to Serve, as a sort of catharsis to deal with her own experience with the U.S. military regarding her own homosexuality. Humphrey culled stories from men and women who served from WWII up until the late 1980s. In the following examples from Humphrey's book, feelings of pain and anger echo through the stories of these servicemen and women who just wanted to serve their country. Instead, many of them ended up being vilified in front of family and friends. Still others were Dishonorably Discharged or "Dismissed Under Conditions Less Than Honorable."

Moss Brentwood-U.S. Navy, 1950-1952, enlisted. Undesirable Discharge.
"It took them thirty days to muster me out, but I was not the only one. Of twenty that went off the ship at the time, about ten of us arrived at the brig. We were segregated from the other prisoners and assigned what were referred to as green stars. It was like the Jews. We wore green badges. We were all released at the same time. They marched us out on the grinder with all the other prisoners. We had been dressed in clothes that were provided for our departure. Obviously they had gone to some sleaze shop and bought the most flamboyant, colorful, god-awful looking things you ever saw in your life to provide as our street clothes when we left. Like kelly-green trousers and purple striped jackets and fake leopard shirts to make us look as ridiculous, as gay or what have you, as we possibly could look. Our 'garments of shame.'"

Jay Hathaway-U.S. Army, 1971-1976, officer. Dismissed Under Conditions Less Than Honorable.
"I was given a series of sanity tests, neurological tests, where pins were stuck in my head-every time a pin went in, blood would drop, and they didn't even bother to clean it off me. I went in for another battery of verbal tests, but fortunately-and not to the perceived view of the military-in essence I was a normal human being. Then on top of all this, the military contacted my family, against my will. They did not need this kind of crap, at least not in the way the military presented it to them."

Barbara Baum-U.S. marine Corps, 1985-1987, enlisted. Dishonorable Discharge (changed to Bad Conduct) six month prison term.
"It was so difficult to realize I had just been given a dishonorable discharge and one year in military prison, stripped of all rank, and required to forfeit all pay for simply being gay. Actually, the court had originally asked for thirty-eight years in prison but reduced it to a year which was later shortened to six months. The discharge was also changed to bad conduct discharge. This was a relief because the second type of discharge did not carry the stigma that would have made me a felon. However, I do understand I was being made an example and this would send a message loud and clear to gays regarding toleration of such activities in the military, particularly in the U.S. Marine Corps."

Although these people were treated like criminals, it is also interesting to note that during times of war, the military has always reduced discharges-including those of gay and lesbian service personal. In WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, U.S. armed forces discharges of gay men and lesbians dropped dramatically or (in the case of the Gulf War) were suspended altogether. Discharges of gay and lesbian personnel in 2003 were only 770, down from more than 1200 in 2001, before Bush invaded Iraq.

This poses an interesting question. If gays and lesbians negatively affect the ability of the armed forces to complete their mission, why would they be allowed to serve in times of war, when the stakes are so much higher? It is obvious that the government can change its discriminatory policies when it sees fit. In this case it is when more bodies, especially "culturally disposable" bodies, are needed to be put in harms way.

Leonard Matlovich, a highly decorated U.S. Air Force Sergeant with nearly twelve years of service, summed up the U.S. military policy in the epitaph written on his tombstone: "When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."

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