The Gay Military Times Second Anniversary Pride Edition - Victroria Via Veritas

The Times They Are A-Changin' by Aubrey Sarvis Exec, Diector, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
Originally published in The Huffington Post, June 6,  2008

"Times change," Sam Nunn said Tuesday.

Boy, do they ever! The former Senator offered this less than startling observation by way of explaining that maybe the ban on openly gay military service members that he was instrumental in passing in 1993 when he was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, that maybe the policy deserved "another look." He did not go so far as to say that the policy was flat-out wrong and Congress should repeal the law, but hey, it's progress of a sort.

"See how it's working," he said, "ask the hard questions, hear from the military. Start with a Pentagon study."

A Pentagon study! We need another Pentagon study? How many studies have there been? The Navy commissioned what is known as the Crittenden Report in 1957. Thirty years later the Defense Security Research and Education Center (PERSEREC) confirmed the Crittenden findings and found no data to support the ban on gays in the military. The Pentagon didn't want to hear that and ten years later they sent PERSEREC back for another look. The second report went even farther than the first, finding that "gay service members fared better than their heterosexual counterparts in most areas of adjustment, including school behavior and cognitive ability." Because the first report caused much hand-wringing in the corridors of the E-Ring, the second report was never submitted.

The Pentagon asked the independent Rand Corporation to take a look at the issue in 1993, between the two PERSEREC reports and after President Clinton signed a memorandum directing the military to end discrimination based on sexual orientation. Rand produced an exhaustive analysis from outside. Their researchers visited seven countries and the police and fire departments of six American cities. They reviewed the scientific literature. 

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Sgt. Denny's Rant

Film Review:
ASK NOT
a film by  Johnny Symons

ASK NOT is the latest entry in what may be called a new genre of films about the Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal movement; or at least somehow relating to gay patriotic Americans serving in the military.  Like last year's entry, TELL, by independent gay filmmaker Tom Murray, ASK NOT is a documentary telling several simultaneous stories woven together into a feature length film with a backdrop of historical footage.  The title: ASK NOT, by Johnny Symons, is a clever play on the name of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't Harass" law enacted by Congress in 1994, which perversely permits gay and lesbian volunteers to serve so long as they never ever say they are gay nor act upon it, nor marry a same sex partner.  Symons seems also to be brilliantly invoking the famed line from President John F. Kennedy's inspirational inaugural speech, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."  Indeed, as Symons' film documents, we simply seek to serve our country.

While the conversely cleverly titled TELL documented the self-told stories of mostly senior gay citizens describing their service from World War II through Vietnam; ASK NOT focuses more on younger gay and lesbian Americans telling their powerful stories to the public in order to end the DADT policy, with some overlap between both films.

One of three stories in ASK NOT follows SoulForce college students in a series of actions, last year, in cities and towns across America, in which several young patriots seek to volunteer to serve while clearly stating to recruiters that they are gay.  They are accompanied by 50 to 100 young supporters who participate in the sit-ins that ensue.  In each case, the news media have been alerted in advance and are are there to record the proceedings.  The recruiter is always excruciatingly polite in informing the "volunteers" that according to the law he may not enlist them into the armed forces.  Then the "would-be" volunteers and their supporters "sit down" to wait "until he changes his mind."

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LGBT Veterans' Pride 08

American Patriots

Austin, Texas

June 14, 2008: Members of the Wes Giles Texas Color Guard at the Austin Pride Parade – Ron Clarke, Alex Blais, Barbara Howard and others survive the 101F heat at Pride Austin! The announcer stated “Wes Giles Memorial Color Guard of San Antonio Texas who has led  off this parade for the last 7 years……make them feel welcome in Austin. The American Veterans for Equal Rights – help them defeat don’t ask–don’t tell so anyone can serve in the military!”

New York City

June 1, 2008: AVER-NY in the Queens Pride Parade in New York City,
with NYC Council Committee on Veterans Chairman Hiram Monserrate.
L-R:VP David Krause, Vickie Breton, CM Monserrate, Pres Denny Meyer, Claude Ashby; photo by Tony Breton

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Pride Month Memories

Leonard Matlovich: an Inconvenient Hero
by Denny Meyer

Leonard Matlovich 1980s © Denny Meyer 2008

June 22, 2008
Twenty years ago today, on June 22, 1988, my friend Lenny Matlovich died from AIDS.  Air Force SSG Leonard Matlovich was a decorated Vietnam war hero, with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star and 18 years of sterling service to his country.  In 1975, he wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Air Force declaring that he was gay.  He was dishonorably discharged, as expected, and he sued for reinstatement.  After ten long years he won his case; his discharge was upgraded to honorable and he received a cash settlement to part ways with the Air Force.

I first met Lenny at a Pridefest in the Summer of 1979.  He was already famous and he'd come to San Francisco where he was welcomed by the gay community with open arms.  Lenny was also a most curious hero for gay folks.  Although there are a million living gay veterans who had served from World War II onward; for most gay people, a "gay man in uniform" was some sort of incongruous fantasy in those days.  Yet, there he was, an openly out war hero, a tall handsome sergeant through and through, conservative, slightly unfashionable, and a Republican from the vast hetero heartland.  For gay folks, at that time, he exemplified the amazing thought that one could truly be anything one wanted to be.

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Like most baby-boomers, I grew up with the understanding that at some point I was going to be drafted and called to serve the country.  It was something I was willing to do because both my parents were Navy veterans of World War II.  At any rate, it was something that was expected of every able-bodied American man.  If they drafted Elvis Presley, they’d surely draft the rest of us, too.

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News Brief: Court Reinstates Lawsuit Challenging Discharge on Grounds of Sexual Orientation by Julianne Sohn

On May 21, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated the lawsuit challenging the dismissal of a highly decorated U.S. Air Force flight nurse on the grounds that she engaged in homosexual conduct. 

The Court of Appeals ruled that the Air Force must prove that discharging Maj. Witt was necessary for the purposes of military readiness.  The court found that the military must prove that a service member's conduct actually hurt morale or jeopardized another government interest.

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