We are discriminated against in jobs, in housing, in public accommodations. We're felons in 22 states. The Supreme Court has declared that we have no right to privacy. If that's not second-class citizenship, I don't know what is.
-- Ginny Apuzzo
The world was changing. For the first time, women joined their brethren in service on-ship, with mixed results. In 1980, the U.S. Navy attempted to discharge 24 women assigned to the U.S.S. Norton Sound for alleged sexual misconduct. In the first organized resistance to the military's frequent anti-gay witch-hunts, the women -- some lesbians, some not -- decided to fight back. In a gross miscarriage of justice, the Navy discharged two women -- oddly enough, the only African-American women of the 24. The case was dismissed against the others but most were eventually forced out of the service. Fifteen years later, these women speak out about their experiences and their empowering legacy when, for the first time, military personnel who were charged with homosexuality chose to fight back, paving the way for others in the coming years.
Two years later, in 1982, a young man named Michael Hardwick was arrested in the supposed privacy of his own Atlanta bedroom for having sex with a consenting man. Charged with Georgia's anti-sodomy law, Hardwick appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. To the profound dismay of gay men, lesbians, and proponents of constitutionally-protected privacy nationwide, the Supreme Court upheld the Georgia conviction, going on to say that the U.S. Constitution does not extend to the protection of homosexual sodomy. Hardwick's lawyer, Kathleen Wilde recalls: "If who you are is a felon, then it affects radically how you can be in the world. Anger over the Hardwick decision quickly combined with rage over government indifference to AIDS, and rising anti-gay violence propelled a new wave of activism."
HOLLOW LIBERTY goes on to 1992, when then-Presidential candidate Bill Clinton vowed to reverse the long-standing military ban on gays. Once in office, however, he faced fierce opposition by Congress and military brass. Even the gay community is divided on the issue. While some view the issue as a way to challenge the discriminatory policy of the nations largest employer, and homophobia in general, others see it as an unnecessary distraction from what they feel to be the communitys most important battlefront -- AIDS. When Clinton's bid to reverse the ban seems near defeat, the "don't ask, don't tell" compromise is issued, but at what cost? As Congressman Barney Frank says, "We have a dual problem as a gay and lesbian community. Not only have we been subjected to legal discrimination but we have been culturally pulverized .... For us, cultural self-expression is also a political act."