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| Reception Company, Ft. Dix, New Jersey - I'm second from the left on the bottom row, my friend Mike Time is first on the left, bottom row - February 1960 |
Well folks, there has been more blowback from my audacious decision to confront some of the homophobes on my ASA (Army Security Agency) Facebook group. A few days I had the temerity to respond of a Jon Swayze (a right wing tea bagger) who posted that Hillary Clinton was gay. I responded "So what? I'm gay. Is there something the matter with that?" thus unleashing a hornet's nest of anti-gay vitriol and some support among the members of this Facebook group.
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| I'm gay, is that a problem? |
Below are some of the latest conversation and then my stream of consciousness reply (as is my wont, I just let "it" flow from my brain to my fingertips).
My response is below:
One
of the main reasons I joined this site was to find out if any other members of
the ASA had a similar experience as I did, a gay man forced to hide his true
identity because of prejudicial and discriminatory policies towards gay
American citizens. For the year or
so I’ve been a member of this site I realized than many of my fellow gay
soldiers are either not on this site, are dead or still in the closet. I was content to stay on this site even
though there was no discussion about what it was like to be a gay man in the
Army Security Agency, forced to hide my true identity, in the early Sixties.
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| "Spec 5" Ronald Tipton during a visit home 1962 |
That
all changed last week when I read a post by Jon Swayze that “broke the news”
that Hillary Clinton MAY BE GAY.
This is the same Jon Swayze that has been posting his Tea Bagger/Far
Right Views non-stop, very little if any about his ASA experiences. Of course it is right to post whatever
he wants. I don’t question that. However, I did post a comment “So
what? I’m gay. Is there something the matter with that?” Of course I realized I would release a
firestorm of criticism among some of the more self-righteous and judgmental members of this
group. I read the comments “I
thought this site was about ASA?
What does this have to do (gay) about ASA?” Of course that question was never brought up in response to
any of Swayze’s non-ASA posts.
Then
I got Swayze cherry picking biblical quotes condemning me as a gay man. No surprise. Heard it all before. Then I see some members stating “I
really don’t care who you marry but this isn’t the place to state your sexual
preference. Why is it
necessary” My response to that is
always “I don’t really care who you marry either but I DO CARE who I
marry.” What an arrogant statement
to make to another human being.
And, of course you don’t state your sexual preference as I did not state
mine, I simply said I was gay.
You’re getting sex mixed up (as the ignorant and uninformed often do) with sexual
identity.
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| William D. Kelly, Bamberg Germany 1951 - Army - my life partner and now husband for the past 49 years |
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William D. Kelly - Air Force (my husband)
Bill seved a total of eight years both in the Army and Air Force |
Then
today I see where Terry Allen Potter brings up the “honesty” question. He asks: “So Ron Tipton my
question is have you always been a homosexual, how did you get into the army? When I joined in 1970 that was a sure out of military service. Next is how did
you get a clearance for ASA. Did you put down false information when they did
your back ground check?”
Of course Terry Allen
Potter knows the answer to his question, he’s just being a smart ass from his
self appointed moral high ground.
However, I’ll give Mr. Potter his answer. I joined the Army in January of 1960. I wanted to join the Army because I
felt it was my MORAL obligation as a citizen of this country. My father was
unable to join the service but my Uncle John was an Airborne paratrooper during
World War II.
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My Uncle John Hannum Tipton, 1943 - paratrooper World War II
Prisoner of war of Germans - escaped twice and was recaptured twice -Mother died a few months before he was released, she believed that he had died in the war
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He was captured by
the Germans in Holland and imprisoned several years. He escaped twice and was recaptured. His mother died a few months before he
was released, thinking he had died in the war. For my Uncle John Tipton and those other men and woman who
didn’t make it home, I felt it was my MORAL obligation to join.
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| 401 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA - site of my first Army induction physical which I failed |
I tried to join right out
of high school. I failed the “cough
test.” The folks at the induction
center at 401 North Broad Street discovered I was born with a hernia. They said I couldn’t join until I got
that fixed. I was devastated. I went home, not knowing what to
do. My Mother sent me to a doctor.
I had an operation to remove my hernia.
Unfortunately from that operation I developed a staph (Staphylococcus
aureus) infection which almost resulted in my death because my condition was
misdiagnosed. I spent the next
five months in and out of the hospital and had two more operations until the
infection was brought under control.
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| Army induction physicals - I did end up on the table to the right - 1959 |
I again applied to join the
Army. By the way, I was ASKED to
join the Army Security Agency. I
did not know of its existence. I
only joined because the Army recruiter whose desk was next to the Navy
recruiter’s desk at the basement of the post office in Coatesville where I
applied to join, asked me why I was joining the Navy. At the time he asked me this my papers to join the Navy were
already drawn up, I was just stopping in to sign then. I was waiting for the Navy recruiter
who was out to lunch. By the time he came back I had signed up to join the Army
because the Army recruiter told me I “could see the world” by joining the Army
Security Agency but wouldn’t have to enlist for three years. Sounded good to me. Ironically, I never got off the East
Coast during my three year tour of duty (basic training Ft. Dix, N.J., school
Ft. Devens, and 2 ½ years at the National Security Agency at Ft. George G.
Meade, Maryland). But that’s the
Army and another whole story I won’t get into here.
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| Me, Ft. Devens - 1960 |
Terry Allen Potter
questions self righteously asks from his comfortable and straight moral high
ground “Did you put down false information when they did your back ground
check?” Well actually Mr. Potter
as an 18 year old from a small town with NO SEXUAL EXPERIENCE I had NO
BACKGROUND TO HIDE. I grew up in
the Fifties, in a small town (as I mentioned before). TV was hardly starting. I knew I was “different” but I knew I wasn’t a pervert. I
word “gay” then meant happy. The
only word I sort of knew was pervert and I knew I wasn’t one of those dirty old
men who hung around public washrooms looking to get a peek at guys at the
urinals. If there was such a thing
as “homosexual” then I thought that was it and I knew that wasn’t me. So Mr. Potter, I wasn’t hiding or lying
about some licentious sexual history that I had. I HAD NONE. If
there was one place I was less than honest was the question on the initial
questionnaire that asked “Do you or have you ever had homosexual tendencies?” Welll……YES. What was I supposed to do? Answer “Yes”? and then live with
that shame the rest of my life?
Always having to explain why I wasn’t in the service, something that I’ve
always wanted to do ever since I could remember. Is that what you so arrogantly and unfeelingly suggest Mr.
Potter? You thereon your self
appointed moral high ground who pontificates “I always felt my fellow ASA
members were held to a higher standard.”
Whose BS’ing who now Terry Allen Potter?
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| Me (in back row fourth from the right) with my Army buddies at Ft. Devens, Mass 1960 |
I answered that question “NO.” And thus I was inducted in the Army, a
scared, timid kid raised in the Fifties form a small town. Joining the Army was the best thing
that ever happened to me in my lifetime.
Ever.
Basic training was rough
but I got through it. During basic
training I witnessed a fellow “trainee” who was accused of “being a fairy” (the
word “gay” still didn’t exits but the word “fag” did and it was thrown around
about as much as the other “F” word that I learned in basic – “FUCK.” This guy endured harassment and then
one day I came back to the barracks to see his bloodied bunk. I don’t know the details other than
some of my fellow recruits decided to “tune him up” and beat the shit out of
him. This recruit ended up in the
stockade and was eventually discharged from the Army. Thus I had my first “lesson” as to what happens to somebody “different.” I went into Protect Mode. Of course I met other gay men in basic
training. Now let me get one thing
clear. There was never any sexual
activity or even a suggestion of sexual activity. Back then it just wasn’t done and besides, we wouldn’t know
what do to anyway. At least that
was what I saw from my perspective.
But I did make friends with a Mike Tine who I thought was like me. We never discussed homosexuality or
anything like that though, we were just friends just as anyone else would make
friends with like-minded individuals.
You know how that works don’t you Mr. Potter? We’re human too. Being gay (homosexual) and sexually active
are two different things. Many
straights and all homophobes don’t understand that fact. It is a fact, I know. I am the expert on this aspect of being
gay, not some straight person who has been indoctrinated by a straight church.
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| Me, fresh out of basic training 1960 |
I got through basic
training. After a leave at home I
was sent to Ft. Devens, Massachusetts.
There I went to school for six months and made life-long friends. One of home was my best friend, Bob
McCamley. Ironcially I didn’t find
out until I left the Army in 1963 and came out to everyone that Bob was also
gay. Neither one of us had a clue
the other was gay. Neither Bob or
I were ever sexually attracted to one another, we were best friends who just
happened to be gay. Over the years
we’ve joked about this aspect of our friendship. Unfortunately, Bob is now in a nursing home suffering from
dementia but for over fifty years we had a very close, platonic friendship. In
fact, Bob is the main reason I retired to Delaware. Bob had left his job in Philadelphia many years before and
moved to rural Delaware (southern) to live openly as a gay man. He moved to Delaware because he didn’t
want to embarrass his family in Pennsylvania.
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| Me (far right with hands over my ears) and my friend Bob (far left with hands on mouth) during a break in schooling at Ft. Devens, Mass. 1960 - my idea for this pose I didn't realize at the time how phrohetic it would be |
After schooling at Ft.
Devens I was ready to travel the world.
Unfortunately, just my luck, when the allocations came down for our
class they were almost all stateside. I was 7th in my class. Only three allocations were foreign and
they were quickly snapped up. I
decided to take Ft. Meade because it was close to my home in Downingtown, a
suburb of Philadelphia.
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| Me kneeling middle row on left with my friend Bob standing behind me in last row on left with hand in his pocket - during break from class April 1960 at Ft. Devens, Mass. |
For the next 2 and a half
years I proudly served my country as a communications intercept specialist at
the National Security Agency. I
quickly was promoted to Specialist 5th class and assistant platoon
leader (mainly to supervise the weekly inspections that the platoon leader didn’t
want to bother with because he had a girlfriend off base he spent a lot of time
with.) I had my own room which I
shared with him but he was never there.
One month I even made Soldier of the Month.
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| Me, Liberty Pass, Ft. Meade, Maryland 1962 |
During my 2 ½ years at the
National Security Agency there were frequent witch hunts. I witnessed many of my fellow soldiers,
some friends get a Section 8 (undesirable) out of the Army for either engaging
in homosexual activity or just being accused of homosexual activity. Yes, even if you were accused and didn’t
have a sufficient or believable defense to the accusation you lost your
clearance. Such a stupid and
idiotic practice because never once has there ever been a case of a homosexual
being blackmailed into giving up secrets. But such was the policy at that time
and we had to live under that constant threat that we could lose our clearance
at any time and often did. Fortunately
for me I was so backwards sexually (I didn’t even know where to start) that I
didn’t have a problem. However,
there was a case of two of my fellow soldiers who committed suicide when they
were discovered to be lovers. They
found their naked bodies one cold Sunday morning, in their car with the motor
running, exhaust pipe stuffed with rags.
The car was parked behind “Olga’s”, a local favorite restaurant we all
frequented.
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| Me (on the right in the helmet) on the firing range September 1962 when I received news of my Uncle John's accident - left right away |
I wanted to make the Army
my career. But when my enlistment
was up I decided to leave because I knew somewhere down the line that
eventually I would be found out. I
wasn’t planning on living the next twenty years celibate. I wanted to meet my life partner. I knew that would be next to impossible
if I was to stay in the Army.
Thus, with great sadness I reluctantly decided to leave when my tour of
duty was up on January 27th, 1963.
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| National Security Agency, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland - where I was stationed for 2 1/2 years - 1960 to 1963 |
The department where I
worked at NSA asked me to convert to civilian status. I could have converted to a GS-14 which was pretty damn
good. I loved my job and the people
I worked with. However, the NSA
also had an anti-homosexual policy and if I stayed I would in the same
predicament. It was the classic
Catch-22. A friend of mine even
suggested that I work for the Social Security Administration in Baltimore where
she worked. Same problem, they
didn’t accept homosexuals. This
time I didn’t want to lie on the application when the question came up (which
was standard on all government employment applications at that time) “Do you
have or ever have homosexual tendencies?”
All doors were closed to me as far as government employment so I decided
to leave. However, the Army gave
me one more chance when they asked if I wanted to extend for a year. They said they would give me a re-up
bonus of $1,300 (a lot of money at that time) if I went to Warrant Office
School. They wanted to send me to
this exotic sounding country that I had never heard of called Viet Nam. I was excited. This was a lot of money and I was
finally “going to see the world.” In my naïveté I almost signed
up until several of my Army buddies, who were in Viet Nam and had returned,
advised me not to. They told me I
would be working out of the back of a helicopter with a teletype intercept
machine and I better hope to Hell when that helicopter is shot down I die
before it hits the ground because if I didn’t I would either be running through
the jungle trying to avoid camouflaged pits in the ground with stakes covered
in human excrement or, even worse be captured by the Viet Cong who would cut
off my private parts and stick them in my mouth as a warning to any other
soldiers to entered their territory.
Needless to say I was discouraged from extending my stay in the Army via
Warrant Office School, even if they were offering me the princely sum of $1,300
(which I had almost already spent).
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| Me (tall in back 2nd from left) with my Army buddies (several gay) and our girl friends (yes!) at the weekly Service Club Dance - 1962 |
So I left the Army on January 27th,
1963. One of my proudest moments
however when I was in the Army was on September 16th, 1961, the day
my Uncle John H. Tipton was buried.
After having survived as a prisoner of war in German prison camps, having
escaped twice and recaptured twice, my uncle John died at 39 years of age in an
accident. He was a painter at
Gindy Trailer Manufacturing Company in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. He worked with my father and several of
his brothers. His overalls, which
had turpentine on them, accidently caught fire from a carelessly discarded
cigarette and he had burns over half of his body. I remember visiting him at the Crozer Burn Center Hospital
in Philadelphia. He was bandaged
up like a mummy with only an opening for his fingertips, eyes and mouth. I was with some of my cousins when I
visited him. We all loved Uncle
John, he was our favorite uncle of our ten uncles. He recognized us but was heavily sedated and didn’t say
anything beyond a few grunts. A
few days later he died.
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My Uncle John Tipton with my cousin Bud - 1956
Uncle John was all the Tipton cousins' favorite uncle |
My two younger brothers and I were asked to be
pallbearers. By this time both of
my younger (and straight) brothers had followed their big brother into the
Army. They too felt it was their
duty to serve their country. And
on the day of our Uncle John’s funeral there was never a prouder moment in my
life than when my brothers and I, in our full dress green Army uniforms carried
our Uncle John’s coffin into St. Josephs’ Church in Downingtown, Pennsylvania
to the ethereal, heavenly sounds of the choir at high mass singing, and the
multi-faceted colors of light shimmering through the stained glass windows to
his widow and three young children and the rest of the family. That day was and always will be the
proudest day of my life. The day I
paid respect (along with my brothers) to my Uncle John Hannum Tipton, who served
this country during World War II, who endured years as a prisoner of war and
survived only to be cut down in the prime of his life bay an accident. He was only 39 years old.
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| My brother Isaac W. Tipton, Jr. - Army MP 1962 |
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| My brother John Tipton, - Army military driver - he was in the Kennedy funeral procession - drove the car with General deGaulle - 1962 |
And you know folks, when someone like Terry Allen
Potter states “I always felt my fellow ASA members were held to a high standard”
I say I met that standard that day.
No one in that church asked if I was gay or how I answered that question
when I joined the Army. And this
is what I say to the Terry Allen Potters of the world, who just happened to be
born straight, and who all so self- righteously and casually pass judgment on
me and men and women like me, who just happen to be born gay….I will use a word
that I learned all to well in basic training. A word that I don’t think I heard before basic training but
when I got home I had a hard time not using. And that word to Terry Allen Potter and Jon Swayze and all
others who deemed to pass judgment on me and the way I have managed to live my
live and seek happiness is FUCK YOU.
Yes, go FUCK YOURSELF.
Now that’s something you understand even if you don’t understand what it
is like for a gay man (or woman) to live and function in this country which for
most of its history has practiced legalized discrimination against this
segment of its citizens.
I have served my country proudly as have many
thousands of my fellow gay brothers and sisters. After I left the Army I decided to come out and live my life
as a free man. This was in April
of 1963, long before coming out was fashionable or safe. And I emphasize safe. Was it easy? No, I lost about half my friends, became estranged from my
family when they wanted to forcibly send me to a hospital “for the cure”, (yes,
my Mother had my brothers and father pull me out of my apartment physically, I
had to fight them off).
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| My Army buddy Bob (on the far left) with his partner Jim (middle) and me - 1980 |
Over the years I’ve been attacked physically for
being gay, I’ve lost two good paying jobs that I love because I was openly gay,
I was physically assaulted at a town hall meeting for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, to
which I was invited after writing letters to my Congressman urging him to not
vote for DADT, I’ve been verbally abused (to which I always fight back). I participated in the first gay rights
march to Washington in 1979 and then thirty years later in 2009. I’ve never been to a gay pride parade
because I don’t think that is the way to convinced straight people that gay
people like myself are just like them except for our sexual orientation.
I’ve lived in a straight neighborhood where
neighbors had their kids stand on our common border shouting “Fags get out!” I had to call the local police and ask
invoke the Pennsylvania hate crimes law.
I received a written apology from the kids and no further repeats of
that harassment but life wasn’t pleasant in the neighborhood so we eventually
moved.
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| My friend Bob and I at my house in Pennsylvania - 1996 |
In 2006 I retired and moved to southern Delaware
which has the fourth largest same sex couple population in the United
States. Even so there is still a
significant amount of homophobia in Sussex County, Delaware from the redneck
population and tea baggers. We
live in the Milton/Lewes/Rehoboth Beach area with has a significant gay
population and most of the straights know us and do not discriminate. In fact our neighbors are a former
Marine and his wife who are very conservative and no Obama fans. However, they are the best neighbors we
have ever had because they know that Bill and I are just two men who have been
together 49 years and who only want the same kind of life they have, security,
comfort and the right to pursue happiness.
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| Friends (gay) Rehoboth Beach - 2010 |
Bill and I on purpose do not live in a gay neighborhood. We are both by nature conservative and
low key. The only difference we
have from our straight neighbors is whom we love. And I might add, our flower presentation around our house is
the best in the neighborhood.
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| Lunch with my old Army buddy Bob at the Wharf Restaurant in Lewes, DE 2009 |
So when I see a comment that “Hillary is a secret
homosexual, don’t vote for her” I feel compelled to respond as is my right as
an American citizen. After all I
did join the Army to protect the freedom of speech for myself as well as all American citizens. I am not to be discounted because I am gay.
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| Lunch with my dear (and conservative) neighbor Barbara - 2011 |
I first go on this website about Ft. Devens and
the ASA because I was interested if any other of my fellow soldiers had similar
experiences that I did. Little did
I know my response to the “Hillary” post where I said “So what if she’s
gay. I’m gay, is that a problem?”
would start this conversation but maybe this is a conversation we need to have
every now and then. After all,
this freedom that the right wingers often proclaim loud and wide should apply
to ALL the citizens of this country;
black and white, gay and straight, religious and non-religious. Isn’t that what this country is all
about Terry Allen Potter. So the
next time you state “I always felt my fellow ASA members were held to a higher
standard”, know that I have met that standard. And I make no apologies for being gay. I am equal to you. Not better or lesser but equal. And I am staying on this website.
Have a good day.
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| Me today Rehoboth Beach Delaware - out and proud |
More blowback (no pun intended) folks to my posting from the Facebook conversation thread on this subject:
