This photo of Tech Sargeant Leonard Matlovitch by Ted Thai announced to the world:
I am a Homosexual
a deeply shocking statement in 1975.
All the more because it appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine, September 8, 1975, heralding an article on “The Gay Drive for Acceptance.”
A side-bar about T/Sgt. Matlovich, called “The Sargeant v. The Air Force,” carried an illustration of him lying in bed wounded by a land mine in Đà Nẵng and holding out the purple heart he earned.:
Leonard Matlovich recovering from his wounds at Đà Nẵng
and displaying the purple heart he earned.
The TIME sidebar also had this photo of Matlovich dancing in a gay bar:
And here's T/Sgt. Matlovich reading about himself in TIME:
The first named gay person ever on the cover of a mainstream magazine.
(leonardmatlovich.com - Gallery)
Earlier, as an airman 1st class, he had received the bronze star for killing two enemy soldiers.
Airman 1st Class Matlovich receiving the Bronze Star
When the now famous TIME cover came out, Matlovich had already written a letter to the Secretary of the Airforce, after conferring with gay activist Frank Kameny and ACLU lawyer David Addlestone, stating that “I consider myself to be a homosexual and fully qualified for further military service. My almost twelve years of unblemished service supports this position.” Matlovich's obituary in the Washington Post says that:
When T/Sgt. Leonard Matlovich handed his coming-out letter to his superior officer, a black captain at Langley Air Force Base, Va., the officer said; “What the hell does this mean?” Replied Matlovich: “It means Brown v. the Board of Education.”
His letter and the TIME article made him “one of the best-known gays in the country.” The BBC quotes Addlestone:
“He was the perfect test case”, says Addlestone, who hoped Matlovich's excellent military record might make the air force think twice about applying the ban [on homosexuals serving in the military].
As a Congressional Cemetery Walking Tour pamphlet relates:
While Matlovich's lawsuit failed to end the ban, the court ordered his reinstatement in 1980 after the Air Force refused to explain why he should not be retained under a then-possible exception policy. Knowing the Air Force would likely contrive another reason to discharge him, and having become a movement leader, he accepted a settlement instead.
In the settlement Matlovich received $160,000 and “In return, Matlovich gave up his five-year crusade to gain readmittance to the Air Force in a landmark gay rights case that challenged the military's ban on homosexual servicemen.” -- The Washington Post, Nov. 24, 1980. Matlovich considered this a “half-victory.”
Leonard Matlovich designed his gravestone as a monument to gay veterans before he died of AIDS on June 22, 1988, choosing Congressional Cemetery instead of Arlington.
The stone itself does not display Matlovich's name but identifies him as “A Gay Vietnam Veteran” and gives his dates of birth and death under pink triangles labeled “Never Again” and “Never Forget.” The pink triangles echo the “Rosa-Winkel” used by the Nazis to identify homosexual prisoners. Underneath is the inscribed:
When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.
The name Leonard P. Matlovich does appear in a plaque representing a Presidential Memorial Certificate. The PMC is available for veterans eligible to be buried in a National Cemetery. This one is signed G. Bush (George H. W. Bush).
The United States of America
honors the memory of
LEONARD P. MATLOVICH
This certificate is awarded by a
grateful nation in recognition of
devoted and selfless consecration to
the service of our country in the
Armed Force of the United States.
G. Bush
President of the United States
Matlovich
Matlovich's monument became the foundation of the “Gay Corner” at Congressional Cemetery.
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