AMAZED: THE PENN: Jan 17,1983

(The Penn is the campus newspaper for Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana Pennsylvania where I did my graduate work.)

Letter to the Editor:

I would like to begin by thanking the editors of The Penn for their courage displayed in their editorial on Discrimination of Nov. 29. As a Gay man who spent four years in the Navy during Vietnam and who is now politically public about his homosexuality, I can appreciate the courage it takes to make such a stand. I would like to respond to the letters that appeared on Dec. 6th in reponse to that editorial.

I couldn't help but chuckle over the comment by Mr. Deabenderfer that because of him (I presume his attitude towards homosexuals) "No homosexual is going to part of this man's Marine Corps." Having served in the Hospital Corps, I came into contact with a great many Marines. And, it was not always in the line of duty. There are homosexuals in the Marine Corps as well as everywhere else. The statistics indicate that one out of every ten people are Gay.

Yes, your attitude and that of the military as a whole, Mr. Deabenderfer, does keep some Gay people out of the military, but obviously not all. It is this attitude based upon the emotions of ignorance and misinformation that we are fighting all across the contry. It is this attitude which causes the oppression and the fear that Gay people live under. It causes people to be suspicious and to fear one another and their own emotions.

If I were in a situation in which I had to depend upon another person for my survival, I would much rather have it be a Gay person who has dealt with their emotions and are comfortable with them, than someone who was at war with himself and more frightened of me and their own emotions than the enemy.

Which brings me to Ms. Severino's letter. She has made a great many assumptions which I find to be rather humorous. She seems to think that Gay people will be more interested in sex than staying alive. The absurdity of that opinion astounds me. Gay people have always been part of the military. If you look into the statistics, you will find that sexuality interferes with their duties much less than their heterosexual counterparts.

Since Ms. Severino seems to be in the military, I would like to refer to some military history. Some of the best fighting forces in history (given their level of technology) were the armies of ancient Greece and Rome. Yet these fighting forces which had large armies of Dorian Greeks, reputed to be among the best in history, were almost exclusively homosexual.

Large percentages of the armies of Alexander the Great (himself Gay) were homosexual. It only makes sense that someone is going to fight much harder and be more dedicated to their unit if their lover or lovers are part of it. The stories of heterosexuals fighting to protect their loved ones are abundant. It is no different for homosexuals.

In our present day military and indeed in our society, sexuality has ceased to be an intimate relationship, but has turned into an instrument of power and domination, and given our currrent attitudes toward sexuality, a means of degredation.

Having experienced the military first hand, I've seen how sexuality has been turned into something ugly by the very attitudes expressed in these two letters. The irony of it is that it is then wrapped in a guilty blanket of morality and we are afraid to question the basic assumptons and reach out for the truth.

If you are trully interested in knowing what you are talking about, I would invite you to review the literature. You may be amazed.

In Gay Pride
Michael M. Coats, Director
Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies
Field Associate, Gay Rights National Lobby