Sunday, October 19, 2008

Pinkish Purple Hearts

Prior to 1981, the policy of the military was to detain, AT THEIR DISCRETION, anybody suspected of homosexual activity. An important off-shoot of this policy was something called the "queen for a day" rule. This rule stated that a person accused of homosexuality could in fact remain in the service, but only if they could successfully claim that their behavior was a singular occurrence (they had to lie, in other words). I mean, talk about homophobia, huh? Granted, this was a fairly difficult period for gays, in general, but, really, making a grown man "queen for a day", that kind of speaks for itself, don't you think? I think it does.

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