Your Stories 2189

Phil Adams

I grew up in San Francisco and lived in the Castro before it became known as a gay neighborhood. I entered the U.S. Naval Academy in the summer of 1979 and excelled there. My grades were excellent, and I was busy as captain of my battalion's crew team. I embraced Christianity as my excuse for why I wasn't dating girls — further delaying issues regarding my sexuality. I was conflicted about my sexual orientation, my religion, and the military's and society's homophobic norms.

Rachael Goss

My whole life I have been different. You see, I am a transsexual — someone born into one gender who identifies as the other. It took me a long time to come to terms with this and the military still won't, but here is my story.

Margarethe Cammermeyer

Born in Oslo, Norway, during Nazi occupation in 1942, I immigrated with my family to America when I was 9 years old. While I was studying nursing at the University of Maryland, I heard about the Army Student Nurse Program and jointed the military at 19.

Nathan White

I joined the navy on October 6, 1950 when I was 18 years old. I went to Great Lakes, IL for boot camp and Hospital Corps School. Then I went to the Naval Hospital at Beaufort, S.C. I worked on a combination medical and psychiatric ward for seven months, then in the special diet kitchen for seven months, and finally in the hospital commissary for another seven months.

Stacy Vasquez

It is difficult to know where to start in a ten year experience. Have you ever awakened and thought to yourself "why am I still here?" Many times during my service in the Army I wondered how I could be living the principles of leadership in silence.

As an African American...

My family has known all along that I do not and will not ever support discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people. My discussions with my family since the issue of an amendment to define marriage as between a man and a women has come up has been based on my personal experience as an African American growing up in the ’50s and ’60s. I know firsthand the effects of discrimination, and I cannot tolerate or support it ever.

Page 18 of 34    Previous | Next