Beth Coye, Mike Rankin, and Lucian Truscott, "Veterans and Military Discrimination"

On November 30, 1999, Commander Beth Coye, USN (ret), Captain Mike Rankin USN (ret.), and Lucian Truscott, author, addressed an audience of UCSB students on the topic of "Veterans and Military Discrimination."

The audience consisted of members of a class on gays and lesbians in the military offered through UCSB’s Department of Political Science.

Truscott is author of Dress Grey, The Boys of St. Julien, and Heart of War. Coye is author of My Navy Too and Rankin is a member of the White House AIDS Council.

Presentations
Lucian K. Truscott, IV
Truscott graduated from West Point 1969 but was kicked out after just one year of service. West Point banned his first book, Dress Grey, which is about a gay murder in the Army. He said that "There have always been gays in the military and to not think so is complete folly…there have always been gays who have served honorably, and probably dishonorably, just like straight people. We come from similar backgrounds, joining the army for the same reasons…patriotism, mostly."

He continued: "[They put] warm bodies in front of cold bullets…they didn’t care if you were gay or not. This was the same in Korea, Vietnam and WW II. All of a sudden during wars the Pentagon says that gays do not disrupt unit cohesion. Then the war ends and they go back to the idiocy of thinking gays should be barred."

Truscott said that he was scheduled to testify before the Nunn hearings in 1993, but that he was banned from testifying after the Committee discovered that he would speak in favor of gays in the military: "It was a complete kangaroo court. No testimony was positive on behalf of gay people…In 1993 it was terrible when Colin Powell made a public statement that gays undermined cohesion. I denounced Colin Powell as a bigot. He was a beneficiary of the 1948 Truman edict and he should be ashamed."

Commander Beth Coye
Coye is a professor who served in the military in the 1960’s and 1970’s. She said that she "got out of the military not because I had to—yes, because I had to—but not because the military discharged me, but because my intuition told me I must leave. I was a ‘Navy Junior’: I grew up in the military with my father as a famous submariner. I had some of that legacy going in. I was both famous and infamous."

"My Navy Too is an important history of Navy women. Women in those days were a double minority, if you were a lesbian and a woman. I fought for many years for who I was. In My Navy Too, the protagonist and 98% of what happened to Tucker Fairfield happened to Beth Coye. It was hard for me not to be out in the military. I think I’m blue and gold in my blood."

Captain Mike Rankin
Rankin served in the Navy for 24 years and he has been an advisor to Bill Clinton for the past twenty years. He was Chief of Staff of Mental Health in Arkansas when Clinton was Governor.

Rankin said that when he "joined the army I wasn’t out…I was dating and sleeping with women and was married one year later. I had no idea I was gay…although, men dominated my fantasy life. But, the Navy knew, and they were as subtle as salmonella in telling me so."

"With the Navy, I went to both Provincetown and Key West. These two locales are full of art, history, and gays and the others were thinking, ‘Does this guy not know these are two gay meccas? Does he not know he is gay? Did he fall off the turnip truck, or what?’ Well, the turnip truck was parked in my front yard."

"Shortly, my naivete ended. [There was a] genius in electronics in the worst of the monsoon rains [in Vietnam] named Kevin. Kevin would bring helicopters in to take the wounded out. A corpsman turned Sergeant Kevin in. [Kevin’s commanding officer] told me, ‘Hate to lose him. You know the deal, give him a medical evaluation. Don’t let the military ruin this man’s life. Get him out.’ I wrote up ‘mild depression.’ Sometimes it works that way—gays do better with sympathetic straight commanding officers than with a gay officer that’s hiding from himself and playing the hardline. [I proceeded to get] gay referrals, [knowing I’d give a] sympathetic evaluation. Empathy. I finally understood what I was offering these men was not sympathy but empathy. These men would be patients for one hour of evaluation but my gay brothers for a lifetime."

"Then AIDS hit. Gays and lesbians would help. There was an underground network of gay and lesbian health professionals. I was confronted [about my homosexuality] by two friends of friends (gay men addicted to coke) who turned me in. [They stated that I] hang out in a Jewish synagogue filled with homosexuals in San Francisco, California. I retorted, ‘have you ever been to Grace Episcopal Church? If you want to see a bunch of homosexuals, go there!’ The investigation ended, no action was taken, but the news spread. Battle lines were well drawn and the military held all the cards. People knew. I was told that ‘the military never promotes single men.’ I got the picture."

"[About this time I went to a meal] and my chair was turned around at the table. This is a traditional sign that you are not wanted. I threw the chair around and ordered scrambled eggs. My breaking point was when we were docked and someone yelled, ‘Some faggots are trying to come aboard ship!’ I retorted, ‘using these terms labels the speaker as a bigot and the Navy does not value bigotry in its servicemen.’"

"The Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell policy is like saying that people of Flemish descent couldn’t serve. The war of gays and lesbians in the military is not over, but it will be, I’m absolutely sure."


Questions & Answers
Beth Coy
Q: "How many homosexuals did you have to discharge as a commanding officer?"
A: "I discharged eight lesbians."

Mike Rankin
Q: "You mentioned networks of gay physicians in the Navy. How did that work?"
A: "Yes, there was a network of us. We met off ship in private. We’d figure out strategies of how the patient could stay in or get out of the military. I refused to condemn people as "gay discharges"; [I would claim] enormous stress or PTSD (post-traumatic-stress-disorder)."

Lucian Truscott
Q: "What do you think will happen in the future?"
A: "I think there will be a bubbling up from below and [gay] people rising to take positions of leadership. It’s going to take some time…right now we have a republican military."