One of the only things that would have made me vaguely proud of my service ... except the entire time I was in was covered by Don't Ask Don't Tell, and my best friend in uniform Told rather than deploy with our unit. The part that makes me sad was he wasn't comfortable enough with our peers, and he was absolutely right to be scared of them.

[–] Maggoty 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, the Cold War's demand for ideological purity really did a number on the military. When I got to the 101st everyone was still debating the guy who murdered someone with a sword because he thought he was gay. It's an absolutely ridiculous amount of FUD. I will say after 2003 it seemed like our priorities realigned to caring about getting the job done.

[–] captainlezbian 4 points 9 hours ago

That’s wild to me coming from queer communities that still have stories and legacies coming from the WWII soldiers who went halfway around the world, realized something about themselves and then decided not to go back to the middle of nowhere and marry someone because their family wanted them to. Like I’m aware of how it happened, but it’s still weird