September 20th is
now a new official gay holiday; the day
that DADT ended. To those who
never served, it may be a dubious day to
remember. To the more than one
million living gay and lesbian American
veterans who served in silence from
World War II through the war in Iraq (OIF), it
means a hell of a lot. To those
now serving in pride, it is a promise
kept which has unchained our patriotic
gay and lesbian volunteers from the
burden of bigotry. Although there
is no comparison to the discrimination
suffered by Black Americans who served
so valiantly through WWII, the lifting
of the ban on open gay service is of
equal significance to President Truman's
1948 Executive Order integrating our
armed forces. It is worth noting
that it took nearly twenty years,
following that order, for racial
equality to become enshrined in law; and
it took exactly sixty years, following
that order, for our nation's first Black
President to be elected.
It is by no means
a coincidence that this first minority
president, Barak Obama, gave our gay
service members freedom from an official
policy of prejudice. He is the
embodiment of what it means to be
American, carrying within his flesh the
soul of who we are--united uniquely
among nations, black and white, a son of
the great plains of Kansas and the blue
Hawaiian waters, and the 11th
great grandson of an American slave,
who rose above the bigotry and ignorance
of others. One cannot be more
American than he is. He kept his
word on legalizing our right to choose
to serve in pride, as well as on
healthcare equality, and the hopes and
dreams of so many ordinary Americans.
Along with all of them, I wept with joy
and hope on the night he was elected,
and I wept when DADT was at long last
repealed; I wept as the son of an
illegal immigrant; and I wept as an old
gay Sgt. First Class who served in
silence for ten years. All that,
in awe of his courage despite the hate
mongers, media whores, and misers who
have exerted every effort to make him
and our nation fail. Not since
Truman, who was president when I was
born, have we seen a leader with such
steel balls.
The first
anniversary of this day brings back memories, first, of the
courage of two gay men, whom I had the
honor of knowing, who served our nation
and who began the battle for our rights:
Dr. Franklin Kameny and TSGT Leonard
Matlovich. Nearly forty years ago,
in the dark days of dishonorable
discharges due to homosexuality, it was
Frank Kameny, a World War II combat
veteran, who sought a service member of
pure heart and sterling character to be
a test case for the right to serve
openly in pride. Lenny Matlovich
had the courage to step forward with his
Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his
wound and valor in Vietnam. Dr.
Kameny lived to see the day, September
20th, 2011, that his work had begun.
He died less than a month later after a
lifetime of battling for our rights.
SGT Matlovich lived long enough to see
his discharge reversed.
Determined to leave a legacy, knowing
that AIDS would soon end his life, he
created his own epitaph at the
Congressional Cemetery in Washington
D.C. where his tombstone reads, "A Gay
Vietnam Veteran. When I was in the
military they gave me a medal for
killing two men, and a discharge for
loving one."
LGBT Americans
have served in every era, war, and
battle in American history. At
Valley Forge, in the cold winter of 1778
at the height of the American
Revolution, there were four gay
soldiers that we now know of, including
the first known to be discharged due to
homosexual conduct, and three heroes
without whom we would not have become a
free nation. COL Aaron Burr
prosecuted and discharged LT Frederick Enslin, ritually breaking his sword over
his head, ripping his rank insignia off
his uniform, and dismissing him
horseless into the Pennsylvania
wilderness, never to be seen or heard
from again. Meanwhile, LTG
Friedrich Von Steuben arrived there from
Europe with his male partner, recruited
by Benjamin Franklin to train the
Continental Army. General
Washington assigned two inseparable
soldiers to assist him with translation,
twenty year old LTC Alexander Hamilton
and his lover twenty four year old LTC
John Laurens (Whose father, Henry
Laurens, was President of the
Continental Congress that year).
They don't teach you this stuff in
junior high school. Laurens later
died in battle. Alexander Hamilton
went on to become the nation's first
Secretary of the Treasury. Von
Steuben is memorialized in a monument in
Lafayette Park across from the White
House in Washington D.C. and an annual
parade in New York City. Aaron
Burr went on to become the third Vice
President of the United States of
America; and the murderer of Alexander
Hamilton in a duel in 1804.
Did he kill Hamilton because he disliked
his economic policies, or because he had
loved a man during our nation's battle
for freedom? Suffice it to say, our story goes on
from there.
What does this
day, September 20th, mean to me
personally as an old gay veteran and son
of an immigrant? In the dark late
1930s, my mother escaped from Nazi
Germany with a tiny suitcase and the
cloths on her back, sailing in steerage
across the North Atlantic in wartime
winter. She arrived at Ellis
Island, within sight of the Statue of
Liberty--our beacon of freedom, WOP
(without papers) as an illegal alien
refugee. After much fussing with
paperwork, she was allowed to stay, and
work, as a resident alien. Like
many newcomers, she first cleaned
toilets to earn a living. She
became a proud citizen, and some sixty
years later retired as a shopkeeper and
real estate broker. Above all
else, she raised me to believe that,
"There is nothing more precious than
American freedom!" That was the
reason why I volunteered and signed up
to serve my country, despite being gay
and unwelcome in our armed forces.
As she had to hide her religion in
Germany, I had to hide who I was while
serving my country for ten years.
It wasn't easy, but I never regretted
joining and serving. I wanted to
pay my country back for my family's
freedom, and I have always been proud to
have done that. Now, to have lived
to see the day when gay Americans can
serve our country in freedom, renews my
faith in what my refugee mother taught
me so long ago. She had faith in
America; she was right.
Denny Meyer, USN,
SFC USAR, Gay Veteran