Dismissed From the Navy For Being Gay

This article is one reason why I never liked the TV show MASH. The character, Corporal Klinger, would dress in women’s clothing and pretend to be “not straight.” They never quite explained it, but the implication was that he wanted to be discharged from the military and he dressed in women’s clothing to do it. And I never watched the show for this reason: the humor was just too damn straight for my taste. And I was just a little kid. 

With that said, here’s a real-life story about a gay man who was discharged from the Navy for being Gay. It happened back then all the time. If you were gay and you wanted to be in the military, you pretended to be straight and you lived a double life. That’s just a fact…a very sad fact that that left many gay men disillusioned. 

One former Royal Navy medic who was dismissed from the military for being gay in 1982 told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland that the experience left him suicidal.

Here’s more. There’s a photo of the guy at the website. Suicide was something else that was common with gay men back in those days. Many were suicidal and many actually committed suicide. I remember a kid named Jimmy Riley where I grew up. He was very effeminate and he was also an altar boy. A very sweet soul. One morning I heard that he’d shot himself. Then there was a young gay black man named Leroy Washingon. He was flamboyant and he wore pink suits with big pink hats and bright white high-heeled boots. One morning I heard that he hanged himself.  

So if any of you from other marginalized groups want to challenge me and tell me your experience was worse than being gay, think again. You’ll get the fight of your life from me. 

 The Wizard of Pride

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