Coming Out Under Fire

The way I came at this documentary is a bit different. I grew up in Canada thinking I was the only gay person in the country. In 1969 I discovered everything I had been told about gays was a lie. I then wrote a book, A Guide For The Naive Homosexual, came out publicly, and then chaired G*A*T*E a gay rights group. I spent endless hours trying to persuade gays not to be afraid and to fight for their rights. I faced 3,200 death threats and 38,000 abusive phone from Christians. Within a couple of years, we had the first gay rights legislation.

When I watched this movie I was furious. How dare the US government throw people in jail with hard labour for 5 years during WWII just for a thought crime -- being gay even without any actual sex. That has to be unconstitutional! How dare the government renege on its pension promise and label gay people as mentally ill so they could never get hired. That is a terrible way to treat young men who risked their lives for the USA, same as anyone else. How dare Eisenhower in 1953 order that all gay federal employees be fired. How dare Senator John Warner (aka Mr. Liz Taylor) ask gay American service people to lie and pretend to be straight, and be kicked out if every the camouflage failed. Would he demand that of any other group, e.g. Christians? I was also furious with the victims. They caved and gave names. They did not launch lawsuits once they were free to. They acted ashamed, and hid what happened to them. What snivelling worms! Anyone who was treated this way should be joining forces to sue and get the pension restored, and the discharge annulled. They bought in totally that they were worthless and ineffectual.

I feel sick to watch black people do a minstrel show, or a Stepin Fetchit routine. They are taking on the mantle of the anti-black stereotype. The gays in the movies did the same thing, calling each other "darling" and "girls", embracing the limp-wristed, empty-headed, female-wannabe stereotype. I found it revolting, though I suppose that is the way it was. Being gay has nothing to do with being a transvestite or a transsexual. That is a straight person's stereotype used to justify gay bashing. They all avoided the civil rights issue, filling their heads with trivial entertainments instead.

The movie is pretty good in that the interviewed people were honest about what they did. They did not pretend they were heroic.

The movie is all in black and white, which makes recent and old footage blend. I wish they had date subtitles to help keep track. The interviewees seem too young for WWII vets. Maybe the interviews were done long ago.