Uncle Sam asked . . .
But
I didn't tell
It's a sad statement about our
homophobic armed forces that they still under serve our country
by denying Gay men and women their rights.
I know because I was one of their victims.
Picture
it 1967 Jefferson City, Missouri, the newsroom of the Jefferson
City News- Tribune where I was employed as a reporter. I
was nineteen.
I entered the newsroom one afternoon after
my day at the University of Missouri in Columbia. A large man
waiting for me asked that we go somewhere where we could talk
in private.
Once seated in a conference room, he told
me he was from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the
Army.
Reference for sodomy
He pulled out a sheaf of papers and told
me I was listed as a reference for sodomy by a new inductee.
It turns out it was the recently drafted
radio disk jockey from the station next door to the newspaper
building, a guy I met through my work for the newspaper. He used
a common "radio name": Tom Kelly. I guess he'd noticed
the lilt in my voice
when we spoke each day on the phone about weather statistics
he needed for his radio show.
I was dazed. I'd never met an open Gay
person that I knew of; I'd only read about them in books.
This was before Stonewall.
I remember him asking me if I "went
down on this guy" but I (now-embarrassingly) naively didn't
understand what he meant. He also asked me some other sexual
questions I didn't understand.
Intimidated completely by the large man
and his curious questions, I remained speechless and confirmed
nothing to him.
I now realize he was suffering from The Jimmy Swaggart Syndrome , i.e.,
he was the thing he was castigating.
He showed me the report from the Army psychiatrist
who had interviewed Tom Kelly. It went into some detail about
his sexual practices. Tom Kelly mistakenly thought he was speaking
in confidence to an ethical professional, something we have to
realize the U.S. Military often lacks.
The CID threatened me
The large man then threatened me. He wanted
me to confirm the information with sexual details and he wanted
my Social Security number. Terrified, I declined to say anything.
He said he would go to my boss, notify the local police, and
he departed.
The next day when I came to work, I was
immediately called in by company president Robert Blosser and
fired.
He told me they'd had this problem (!!!!)
before. I recall sitting there in front of him and thinking that
to deny this was utterly ridiculous. He might as well be denying
he was a white heterosexual male.
Aftermath
Within two weeks, I'd been asked on dates
by two other male reporters. Word was apparently out.
Although I had covered the Police beat
and knew cops, I never heard from any of them.
While pursuing my professional degree,
the story continued.
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Postscript
After more than 30 years, the nonsense
continues with Arizona leading the way. Check this off-site link.
Steve May, AZ legislator
Barney Frank outs CIA
See this recent Washington
Post Story about the Alan Turing Chapter of Gay, Lesbian
or Bisexual Employees (GLOBE) at the National Security Agency
and a Gay Pride celebration at the CIA.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) speaks at
a gay pride celebration at the CIA headquarters in Langley June
6, 2000.
Don't ask, don't tell, don't fall in love
The new millennium is bringing new pressures
on the homophobic armed forces. Marines in Colorado face the
dilemma that if they fall in love their careers are in jeopardy.
Salon Magazine
A rare peek inside the lives of gay military officers,
a world filled with staggering sacrifice, loneliness and glass
ceilings.
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