You Might Like
Military gay rights advocate in the District: 1975
Washington Area Spark posted a photo:
Rudolph “Skip” Keith is shown attending a gay rights conference held at All Souls Church in Washington, D.C. October 11, 1975.
Keith had been in the Air Force for seven years when he announced he was gay during a race relations class at Dover Air Force base on May 23rd.
Keith, a native of Washington, D.C., was an Air Force staff sergeant who had an “outstanding” service record, according to military authorities.
The Air Force recommended his discharge citing five instances in which Keith told people he was gay.
Keith said at the conference that “I liked the Air Force and hated to go. They’re a bunch of hypocrites and their rules for discharges aren’t hard and fast.”
Keith was given an honorable discharge.
Leonard Matlovich also attended the conference and was a national figure at that point in time while few had heard of Keith.
Matlovich was a former Air Force technical sergeant who was discharged after 12 years in the service in 1975 and had come out two months before Keith and became a leading gay rights spokesperson.
Unlike Keith, Matlovich was given a general discharge instead of honorable and he sued over his expulsion from the service and the lesser grade discharge.
At the conference Matlovich told the 350 attendees, “If we are united, nothing on earth can defeat us. Black Americans led the way in the fight for civil rights and now we’re asking for our share of the American pie.”
Matlovich planned his coming out with longtime D.C. gay rights activist Franklin Kameny who was looking for someone in the military to test the vague bans on gay people.
Matlovich became the first openly gay person to be featured on the cover a major news magazine when Time put him on the cover of a 1975 issue.
Matlovich’s suit stalled for years in the courts, but in 1980 U.S. District Court Judge Gerhard Gesell ordered him reinstated into the Air Force and promoted.
The Air Force offered Matlovich a financial settlement instead. Convinced that the military would find some other reason to discharge him if he reentered the service, or that the conservative Supreme Court would rule against him should the Air Force appeal, Matlovich accepted.
The figure, based on back pay, future pay, and pension, was $160,000.
Matlovich briefly lived in Washington, D.C. but ultimately settled in California where he continued gay rights activism.
He announced on Good Morning America in 1987 that he had contracted HIV, and was arrested with other demonstrators in front of the White House that June protesting what they believed was an inadequate response to HIV/AIDS by the administration of President Ronald Reagan.
Matlovich died of AIDS in 1988. Keith dropped from public view and it is unknown what became of him.
‘In 1993 the military adopted a “Don’t ask don’t tell” policy where gay people could stay in the military provided they didn’t disclose their sexuality and prohibited military personnel from asking about someone’s sexuality.
That policy was ended in 2011, although ongoing litigation over same sex marriage benefits and discrimination continue.
Transgender people were briefly permitted, but President Donald Trump ordered them expelled from the military in 2018.
For more information and related images, see
The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
You Might Like
