CBS did their turn on a gay theme Nov. 16 and it was a decidedly heavier treatment than the fluff of Queer Eye.
First up was a segment on 60 Minutes that focused on the case of Lt. Col. Steve Loomis [see interview this issue]. He was kicked out of the Army for being gay, in 1997, just eight days short of qualifying for his 20-year pension.
The story began Aug. 3, 1996 when a troubled private at Fort Hood, Texas set fire to Loomis' house off base. He was trying to destroy a video of him engaging in sex with Loomis. The soldier had an affair with Loomis and had agreed to the sex and the taping. He later had second thoughts and feared that the tape might be used against him.
The tape survived the fire and was picked up by the police during their investigation of the arson. They shared it with military.
This evidence was obtained and forwarded to the military without a search warrant and without the consent of Loomis. This was despite advice from the district attorney that the police must obtain permission or a warrant and that the tape could not be provided to the military without a subpoena.
The Army used it to prosecute the highly decorated 20-year veteran who had been wounded in Vietnam. The administrative proceedings that led to the discharge were a nightmare of prejudice, discrimination, and violation of basic legal principles.
Loomis filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in D.C. July 7. He charges numerous procedural violations and also is challenging 'the 'sodomy' provision of Article 125' of the Universal Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) as violating his 'constitutional right to liberty ... to engage in private, consensual acts of oral and anal sex with persons of the same gender.'
It is the first lawsuit that uses the Lawrence decision, in which the Supreme Court struck down all remaining state sodomy laws, to challenge the antigay military policy known as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' (DADT).
On 60 Minutes, former Judge Advocate General of the Navy, retired Admiral John Hutson, said society has changed. Gay people now serve openly in every other capacity and in the militaries of most of our allies.
'We've matured as a society ... . We can change and, if you can change, then I think we have to moral imperative that we must change,' Hutson said in calling for the end to DADT.
David Sheldon, Loomis' attorney, said the court, at the request of the Pentagon, has granted a stay on the case until early next year. Meanwhile, the Board for Correction of Military Records is reviewing the case to see if Loomis should be retired with full benefits.
'60 Minutes made repeated requests to the Army and the Pentagon for comment on Lt. Col. Loomis' case,' said correspondent Morely Safer. 'We asked. They wouldn't tell.'
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COLD CASE
Cold Case, the drama set in Philadelphia that looks at unsolved crimes, reopened the beating death of a young athlete in an alley near a 'fag' bar in 1964. 'I think the police swept this one under the rug,' Danny's mother says, 'and my husband and I helped them do it. We didn't push.'
'Danny' was a star on the University of Pennsylvania baseball team. And the story was told by those who knew him, through a series of black-and-white flashbacks that are richly evocative of an era of underground clubs run by the Mafia, police raids and harassment, and the fear that was the closet.
The tension and violence was real but so too were the strength and camaraderie of gay men and women to survive those times. It comes through in the defiance and humor of 'Tinkerbell,' then a tiara-wearing Black diva, now an aging and portly drag queen. And in the anguish of Danny's boyfriend, now a prominent judge, who said, 'In some ways Danny was ahead of his time. He didn't hate himself.'
The episode was an extremely powerful and moving window into gay life then and now. Be sure to catch it on a repeat.
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