The Vietnam War and Gay Men
by David Bianco
U.S. involvement in Vietnam was one of the most hotly contested issues of
the late 1960s and early 1970s, the era that also spawned the gay liberation
movement. Gay men found themselves on both sides of the conflict, as
service members and as anti-war protesters.
Many gay men, like Leonard Matlovich (who later made a test case as an openly
gay soldier), willingly enlisted for tours of duty in Vietnam. At the time,
Matlovich felt it was his patriotic duty to "kill a Commie for Mommy." But in
retrospect, he wondered about his real intentions in enlisting. "I was so
dissatisfied with being gay," he later recalled, "that in some ways,
volunteering for duty in Vietnam was like a death wish or a suicide
pact." Matlovich also noted that he signed up looking for male companionship.
"In country," gay soldiers developed an underground network for finding each
other, much as gay men always had done back home. Gay G.I.s had to be
particularly careful, because they were in jeopardy of court martial and
prison or dishonorable discharge if caught or turned in. That risk
lessened somewhat as the war escalated and the Armed Forces needed more and more
fighting power.
During the war, there were at least two gay bars and several other
gay-friendly ones in Saigon, though it was risky for servicemen to frequent
them. "You ... have to be in uniform when out of quarters," one gay sergeant
told The Advocate in 1971, "and this makes promiscuous bar-hopping
dangerous.... Also, there's a 10 p.m. curfew."
But gay G.I.s claimed that the best cruising actually occurred right on the
bases - at the USO service clubs in Cam Ranh Bay and Danang and at the
military swimming pool near the Tan Son Nhut Air Force base. The verandah of
the officers' club at China Beach was also a gay hot spot. At the front,
there was of course much less opportunity for privacy and intimacy. Many gay
soldiers experienced come-ons from straight comrades who were sexually
frustrated by being away from women for long stretches.
Stateside, other gay men did everything in their power to avoid military
service. Rey Rivera (a.k.a. Sylvia Rivera, one of the transvestites arrested
at the Stonewall riots) was drafted in 1967 at 18 and decided to report to
the local draft board in full drag - high heels, miniskirt, and red nails.
The sergeants in charge assumed Rivera was a woman. But Rivera corrected them
and was promptly sent to the psychiatrist, who asked if there was a problem
with his sexuality. "I don't know. I know I like men," Rivera replied. "I
know I like to wear dresses. But I don't know what any (problem) is." The
doctor quickly stamped "HOMOSEXUAL" in red across Rivera's draft notice.
Claiming to be gay became a popular way for straight men to avoid the draft.
One draft resisters' manual from 1968 dispensed stereotypes and epithets
along with advice: "Act like a man under tight control. Deny you're a fag,
deny it again quickly, then stop, as if buttoning your lip.... And maybe
twice, no more than three times over a half-hour interview, just the
slightest little flick of the wrist."
The early gay liberation movement was the scene of both draft resistance and
anti-war protest. Gay groups and publications encouraged members to resist
serving. "Homosexuals will not fight in a war that fucks us over in all its
institutions," read an editorial in a San Francisco gay paper late in 1969,
summing up the attitude of many gay leftists. "We will not fight in an army
that discriminates against us."
Many of those who founded the Gay Liberation Front (which took its name from
the Marxist National Liberation Front of Vietnam) had been active in anti-war
demonstrations before Stonewall, like the first Moratorium on Washington.
After gay liberation took off, they continued the campaign. During the
December holidays in 1969, GLF handed out flyers in Greenwich Village near
the site of the Stonewall rebellion encouraging people to wear black armbands
and to send gifts to G.I.s in Vietnam in the name of peace. The following
spring, GLF-ers shouting, "Suck Cock, Beat the Draft!" joined a protest in
Washington that ended in a "nude-in" in the reflecting pool in front of the Washington Monument.
In April 1971, a second and larger Moratorium Against the War was held in the
capital, with an estimated 10,000 gay people taking part. Later that year,
15,000 gay protesters swelled the ranks of anti-war demonstrators in a
similar march in San Francisco. GLF members carried signs saying: "Soldiers:
Make Each Other, Not War" and "Bring the Beautiful Boys Home." The leftist
chant, "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh / Dare to struggle, dare to win" was
transformed by gay participants into "Ho Ho Homosexual / The status quo is ineffectual."
But GLF self-destructed from a lack of leadership and organization, and
many in the gay movement realized that most leftist groups didn't include gay
liberation among their concerns. Anti-war protest and support for gay
soldiers fighting in Vietnam became low priority for gay groups, since at
home gay people were being harassed, arrested, and denied their rights.
The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), which dominated the movement after 1970,
focused on issues of more immediate concern to gay people in the States,
such as legal and electoral politics.
Kopkind, Andrew.
"The Boys in the Barracks" in Lavender Culture, ed.
Karla Jay and Allen Young (Jove/HBJ, 1978).
Pax Vobiscum. "Gay Life Is There, Vietnam G.I. Says, But You Have to Be
Careful." The Advocate, May 26-June 8, 1971.
Shilts, Randy,
Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S.
Military
(St. Martin's, 1993).
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