If Don't Ask Don' Tell Was Around During Viet Nam Days - The War Might Have Ended Sooner.....

[global1]

I don't know how many guys got out of going to Nam for all kinds of problems - but I don't recall anyone from my high school ever using the 'gay' excuse to get out of being drafted and going into the Army and being sent to Nam.

After listening to Rachel's show tonight - if that's all it takes is an admission that one is gay to get out of military service - then I think we can launch a plan to stop wars.

All we have to do is get everyone in the military to say that they are 'gay'. They'll all get thrown out and then they would have no one to fight their contrived wars.

[Kaleva]

1. Being gay was much more of a stigma back in the 60's

I imagine many men would have preferred risking being drafted and face possible death in Vietnam then say they were gay.

[aquart]

5. And just as many were proud to serve, gay and all.

That's what was so funny about all the fuss. The armed forces have never been gayless.

[napi21]

2. That was a very popular way of getting out of the draft back then.

I lived in Pgh. Pa. then and all my friends were draft age. Many of them used that excuse to get out of going to war.

My fuancee at the time didn't and his # was fairly low, but we were very happy when JFK gave a break to anyone who was married. We set our date and were married in 2 months. It was a very unpopular war.

[ContinentalOp]

3. Yes, I wasn't around at the time...

but I've even seen this in a few movies about the era. Alice's restaurant maybe? And at least a couple others.

[aquart]

4. Well, I know two who did.

My boyfriend and another classmate named Greg. Greg did an entire persona in a purple fishnet tanktop, but all Ted did was put a check in the box HAVE YOU EVER HAD A HOMOSEXUAL EXPERIENCE? and wait four hours on a bench till he could see the shrink who asked him, "Would you like to talk about it?" "No." And Ted was free.

The catch? They were both theatre majors. There was no stigma attached to being gay where they planned to spend their lives.

[dsc]

6. There were actually classes held by activists to coach people on faking being gay

one very famous person who used it was Chevy Chase. That said, the most famous gay soldier prior to the whole gays in the military debate was Watkins who served from VietNam until the mid 1980's with everyone knowing he was gay. He sued when the military wouldn't let him reup and won a partial victory in that he got his pension.

[Thothmes]

8. Not only during the war.

In the seventies, after the war and the draft, a center in San Diego would council sailors on how to use admission of homosexual tendencies to get out of the Navy with an honorable discharge. A couple of months before we were to deploy to Westpac, 5 sailors were discharge using this information.

[annabanana]

7. "Sarge, I'm only 18, got a ruptured spleen and I

always carry a purse.
Got eyes like a bat, my feet are flat and my asthma's gettin' worse."

Draft Dodger's Rag - Phil Ochs