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Mugshot of Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was a gay civil rights activist who was particularly passionate about racial equality. He helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which Martin Luther King Jr. was a president and which influenced the Civil [...]
Pat Bond Describes the Military Purge of LGBTQ+ Service Members
Pat Bond was a member of the Women’s Army Corps (a WAC) during World War II. As a lesbian, she risked a “blue discharge” from the army if she was discovered. Blue discharges were highly stigmatized penalties for alleged dishonorable behavior [...]
Military Adopts "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
In 1994, the military adopted a new policy regarding LGBTQ+ service members: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. In the past, military regulations stated that homosexuality or other LGBTQ+ identites necessitated an immediate discharge from military service. [...]
A Letter from Perry Watkins on his Mistreatment in the Army
Perry Watkins was a gay African American soldier who was drafted to serve in the army during the Vietnam War. He was open about his sexuality throughout his entire career. Despite this, in 1981, the army revoked his security clearance after 13 years [...]
Perry Watkins Describes his Mistreatment by the Army
Perry Watkins was a gay African American soldier who was drafted to serve in the army during the Vietnam War. He was open about his sexuality throughout his entire career. Despite this, in 1981, the army revoked his security clearance after 13 years [...]
Background Essay on the LGBTQ+ Community and the Military
This essay outlines broad trends in LGBTQ+ American history and traces the evolution of LGBTQ+ people’s involvement in and relationship with the United States military.
A Committee of Freedmen on Edisto Island Reveal Their Expectations
This letter was written by a group of freedmen to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Land (known as the Freedmen’s Bureau). The freedmen were from Edisto Island, South Carolina, an area that came under Union [...]
Military History and the LGBTQ+ Community: Index of Terms/Language
The following list of terms and language may be helpful for students (and educators!) when reviewing and analyzing documents in the "Military History and the LGBTQ+ Community" Collection
Black Activist in Appalachia Argues for Food Stamps (1968)
Mary Rice Farris, a Black woman born and raised in Kentucky, became an activist and fought on behalf of poor, Black Appalachian citizens. In February 1968, she testified as part of U.S. Senate hearings on federal aid to low-income families. Facing [...]
Dollie B. Burwell Remembers (2022)
Dollie B. Burwell, often referred to as the “mother of the environmental justice movement,” was a central figure in protests against toxic waste dumping in North Carolina in 1982. Polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, are toxic chemical [...]