Many LGBTQ+ veterans settled in San Francisco because it was a common point of disembarkation and a hotbed for sex and gender nonconformity
A United States Air Force Sergeant holds his Honorable Discharge papers in 1975. He was discharged from the service because he was gay.or military servicemen during World War II, the sight of a blue discharge paper was a sentence for struggle.
“Homosexuals who couldn't hope to pass for straight set up their own small businesses that created a group of openly gay people with an economic base to sustain the possibilities of a movement here,” says Gerard Koskovich, a founding member of the GLBT Historical Society. of the “gay capital” of the U.S. in a 1964 LIFE Magazine issue.
But San Francisco’s role as a port of embarkation for the Pacific Ocean Theater during World War II also played a prominent role. The U.S. military had strict policies regarding service members that were attracted to the same-sex, forcing many to lie about their sexual orientation to serve. “One of the arguments against letting gay people in the military is that they could be security risks,” says Estes, who says that military leaders feared that queer duty members could be blackmailed into revealing U.S. secrets in exchange for staying silent about their orientation. “It was this classic Catch-22.
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