Gay vets recall wartime experiences

When Carol Riso joined the Air Force Nurse Corps back in 1962, she didn't think much about checking off the box on her enlistment form declaring that she did not have homosexual tendencies. But things changed when she fell for a fellow nurse while stationed in Japan, where she tended to U.S. soldiers wounded in Vietnam. "I realized at that time that I was a lesbian. It was a great feeling. I finally understood what all my feelings were about. It was like a whole new life," Riso recalled. "I used to tell everybody I was made in Japan."

Riso, who received a medical discharge in 1972 and now lives in Bedford, was one of five openly LGBT veterans who shared their experiences in the military with an audience of about 25 in the ornate Abby Room at the Boston Public Library on June 4. Organized by the LGBT Aging Project, the forum was held in conjunction with the annual Boston Pride festivities, the theme of which is "Ask. Tell. Proud to Serve Our Community, Our Country, Our World."

After she came out, Riso realized she wasn't alone. Most of the women she met while living on base, she said, were lesbians. "We used to laugh, saying that about three-quarters of the Air Force Nurse Corps were lesbians." And thanks to what she now knows as "gaydar" gay and lesbians service members "just recognized one another," said Riso, whose military career brought her to Missouri, California, Canada and Italy, in addition to Japan. As she moved between military stations, Riso's gay and lesbian comrades would give her names of people to contact at her next destination. "So I was never anyplace where I didn't know any gay people," she said.

Sheri Barden of Boston described a similar experience in the Women's Army Corps, where she served during the Korean War, from 1953 to 1955. Barden recalled being stationed with nearly 300 corps members in France, when her company merged with another. "When I got home I looked and said, 'Oh wow there were 277 of us and 200 of us were lesbians," she said, eliciting laughter from the audience. "So there really were no secrets; everyone was gay and of course we were afraid of being court marshaled, but it isn't likely that they would embarrass themselves by court marshaling 200 women. Because they would have to start at the top."

Military life was a little different for Janice Josephine Carney, a Cambridge native who enlisted in the Army after graduating high school in 1969, as the Vietnam war dragged on. Though opposed to the war, Carney, who is a transwoman, was hoping the military would solve her gender identity crisis. "I thought the Army would butch me up and make a man out of me, make my father happy," she recalled. "I struggled all through high school over my gender. I didn't know who or what I was. That's how I went into the Army - this really strange little effeminate man. That's what people called me at the time."

Carney, who was known as John back then, said the year she spent in Vietnam "was very, very hard." She was shot at and survived "a real bad ambush." She then was transferred to Germany for two years, where she discovered gay bars and drag shows. "Drag shows were the big thing," Carney recalled. "I said, this is cool, I could dress up." But Carney continued to struggle with gender issues. Three months before her enlistment was to end, Carney's commanding officer received word that Carney had been spotted leaving a gay bar. The officer confronted Carney and "just flat out told me if one more person sees me or says anything about me, then he would recommend me for a dishonorable discharge," Carney told the audience. "That's how it was before the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy. You always had that hanging over you if you were gay, lesbian, bi or transgender. You could lose all your benefits and get thrown out. Even though I had served honorably in Vietnam."

The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, implemented in 1993, allows gay and lesbian people to serve in the military so long as they don't reveal their orientation; ostensibly officers and service members are prohibited from inquiring about the sexual orientation of their colleagues. The policy also restricts the scope of investigation into a service member's sexual orientation. For instance, under the policy, going to a gay bar is not considered credible evidence of one's sexual orientation.

Vietnam-era Navy veteran Nat Butler, a panelist and moderator for the event, noted that though Congressman Marty Meehan's bill to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has the bipartisan support of about 130 cosponsors, "it's unlikely to pass while Bush is president."

"However," Butler added, "all eight of the Democratic candidates [for president] have declared their support for repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Carney has been active with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), an advocacy organization trying to repeal the gay ban. She is also an active opponent of the Iraq War. "So it's almost like I'm schizophrenic," she said. "I'm protesting against the war [and] on another level I'm protesting for the right for GLBT people to at least have the freedom to decide [if they want to serve]. It's a very difficult situation to be in."

Despite the constant threat of being booted from the military based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, not to mention their disagreement with the current war, the panelists unanimously expressed pride at having had the opportunity to serve their country. "Once you put on that uniform you never take it off," said Barden. "I dislike [President] Bush and our government and what they are doing. But most importantly I support each and every man and woman who has ever served in the armed services and we must never forget them. We will never forget them and we will never forsake them," said Barden, to applause from the audience.