By PHIL LaPADULA
Friday, June 17, 2005
In 1986, Mark LaFontaine, a former Eagle Scout, joined the Coast Guard, he said, because he wanted to serve his country.
But when Coast Guard officials found out that the then 19-year-old Florida resident was gay, LaFontaine was not just discharged from the service. As he described it, he was subjected to four months of confinement, “psychological torture” and “hard labor” before he was finally released in December 1987.
LaFontaine and several other local gay veterans will serve as grand marshals at the June 19 Stonewall Street Festival in Wilton Manors. They will also serve as color guard in the parade, carrying the American and Florida state flags.
The vets are members of the Florida Gold Coast chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights, which just recently received its charter from the national group. The group was originally founded in 1990 as the Florida Gold Coast Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Veterans of America. It disbanded for a while in the mid- to late-1990s, but has just recently reformed under the AVER umbrella.
The group includes a 75-year-old lesbian who volunteered for the reserves during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and two 68-year-old gay men who were both drafted in the late 1950s. One of them was sent to Berlin during the 1958-62 Berlin Crisis
Members of the group tell vastly different stories about their military experiences, but they all share one thing in common: They all had to hide their sexual orientation during their service or face dire consequences.
LaFontaine faced those consequences during a year in the 1980s that has left lingering scars on his psyche.
He joined the Coast Guard in Dec. 1986, “fully expecting to make a career out of it,” he said. After completing boot camp in Cape Maye, N.J., LaFontaine was stationed on the Pacific island of Guam.
LaFontaine kept his sexual orientation a secret, but he said “not a day went by when someone didn’t ask me if I was gay.” LaFontaine thinks his slightly effeminate-sounding voice and mannerisms gave him away.
In August 1987, a shipmate of LaFontaine’s informed him that he had been following him because he was “under suspicion” for homosexuality. LaFontaine was brought before the captain of his ship, who asked him if he was gay.
When LaFontaine admitted that he was gay, he was asked to identify others in the service or on the island whom he knew were gay.
After he refused to provide any information about other people, LaFontaine was first sent to the brig and then placed under barracks arrest.
“I was told that I couldn’t leave and I couldn’t go anywhere without an escort,” LaFontaine said.
Next came what LaFontaine referred to as the “hard labor” part of his military experience. He was handed a hammer and chisel and sent out into a field to break up a concrete slab. This “assignment” went on for two and a half weeks.
“I had blisters on my hand that were so bad you could see the bones,” LaFontaine said.
Finally, a Navy doctor intervened to stop the abuse, LaFontaine said. This resulted in an altercation between Navy and Coast Guard officials.
“The Coast Guard people didn’t like the Navy people telling them what to do,” LaFontaine said.
Next, LaFontaine was sent to a psychiatrist for what he referred to as “forced psychological evaluation.” The psychiatrist told him that there was nothing wrong with him, LaFontaine said.
Finally, on Dec. 24, 1987, LaFontaine was discharged from the Coast Guard. He was flown to Seattle and dumped off there, instead of being returned to his city of origin, Delray Beach, Fla. According to LaFontaine, it was customary for service members to be returned to their city of origin when they are discharged.
“It’s left a lasting impression on me,” LaFontaine said. He said he decided to join the gay vets group because “I don’t want some other young person to go through the same crap.”
Mary O’Connor, 75, was more fortunate during her military service.
For O’Connor, her personal call to duty came when the Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons in Cuba in October 1962, prompting a grave crisis that nearly led to war.
At the time, O’Connor was working as a blood bank technician at Memorial Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., a job she held for 40 years. When the Cuban Missile Crisis broke, O’Connor decided to join the reserves. After completing training at Fort Benning, Ga., O’Connor served for six years in the reserves.
“I knew that if we got into a conflict, they would need competent hospital people here in Florida,” O’Connor said.
It’s clear that O’Connor is proud of her service and that she values the sacrifices of others who have fought for the United States. During a lunch meeting at a local restaurant in Wilton Manors, O’Connor passed around photos she took during her recent visit to the beaches of Normandy and the memorials that mark the site of the 1944 Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
Richard Rogers, 68, and Bill Mullins, 68, were both drafted into the Army in the late 1950s.
At the time, draftees were required to serve two years, but Mullins’ and Rogers’ service was extended by six months because of the Berlin Crisis, which started in 1958. The crisis centered on a dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union over the political status of West Berlin and included the building of the Berlin Wall.
Mullins was sent to Berlin to reinforce an Army garrison in the city. Rogers was stationed in France.
After leaving the service, Rogers and Mullins met at a gay bar near the White House called the Chicken Hut. They have been together ever since.
Recently, the two men volunteered for three years at the Veterans Administration clinic in Oakland Park, Fla.
“I’m encouraging members who have the time to volunteer,” O’Connor said. “We want to visit people in VA hospitals and to write to members serving overseas. We also want to visit homebound gay vets.”
At the top of the list of AVER’s goals is abolishing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which prohibits gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military and allows for their discharge if their sexual orientation is revealed.
O’Connor and other members of the group all agreed that the current recruitment crisis in the military could lead to the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. As the military continues to fall short of its recruiting goals, some schools and colleges are even considering banning recruiters under pressure from parents and others who oppose the Iraq war.
There is also encouraging news for gay service people on the legislative front. In March, U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and end discrimination against gay service people. At last count, the bill had 70 Democratic sponsors and three Republican sponsors, including Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, whose district includes Miami.
Furthermore, a nationwide poll conducted by the Boston Globe in May found that 79 percent of Americans think gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military.
“Large majorities of Republicans, regular churchgoers, and even people with negative attitudes toward gays think gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military,” the Globe reported.
A recent Gallop poll showed 65 percent support for lifting the ban, and Fox News reported 64 percent support for allowing gay to serve in 2003.
Yet 653 service members were discharged in 2004 because of homosexuality, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a group in Washington D.C. that helps and advises gays and lesbians in the military.
That number is down from 1,273 discharges recorded in 2001, which was the highest number since the policy was implemented in 1993. In fact, the number of discharges for homosexuality has been declining since the United States became involved in military action in Afghanistan and Iraq following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
That trend is typical of the history of gays in the military, according to Rogers.
“In times of need, they kept us,” Rogers said. “Then in peacetime, they would revert back to their old tricks of discharging us because of homosexuality.”
Besides repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, O’Connor said the gay vets group seeks to end all forms of discrimination in the U.S. military, provide counseling and support to those affected by the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and end discharge codes that label sexual orientation.
Despite the hardships of having to lead a secret life while serving in the military, many gay men and lesbians continue to sign up.
“From the Revolutionary War to Iraq, we’ve always been there,” Rogers said.
“You feel a psychological contract with your country,” O’Connor said.
The gay vets group allows those who have served to share a bond they feel with others who endured the same hardships, O’Connor said.
“Comrades then, comrades today,” she said.
Phil LaPadula can be reached at plapadula@expressgaynews.com.
http://www.expressgaynews.com/2005/6-17/news/localnews/
