So when I was a teenager (looking forward to the still very-real military draft) during in the Viet-Nam war era, one of the minor hits was the Draft Dodger Rag by Phil Ochs. Here’s a snippet (emphasis mine)
I’m just a typical American boy from a typical American town
I believe in God and Senator Dodd and keeping old Castro down
And when it came my time to serve I knew better dead than red
But when I got to my old draft board, buddy, this is what I said:(Chorus)
Sarge, I’m only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen
And I always carry a purse
...See the rest of the lyrics, plus chords, plus copyright info, etc., here.
Being gay back then was not, um, well understood, with the result that transsexuality was generally confused with homosexuality. Nor was it tolerated in the slightest (until surprisingly recently in California men who’d been convicted of the “sex crime” of homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s were still required to notify the sexual-offender registry any time they changed addresses!) And so it was quite a step back then, not to mention quite a risk, for a straight man to claim homosexuality in order to evade conscription into military service.
Which only makes more poignant this observation from @Stranahan, on Twitter:
Today, let’s all give thanks to the men and women forced to hide their personal life just so they can serve their country.
If you didn’t have to go if you were gay back then, it’s all the more important to recognize those who must conceal, and by doing so at least partially surrender, their identity in order to serve in the military today.
Hats off to all who’ve served, and sacrificed, not just those who were “supposed to.”
Submitted by 2966 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-05-25 19:22.
hm, interesting lyrics. it really is confusing to me how the society i live in so often intertwines and mistakes gender expression/identity with the expression/identity of sexuality. these old, ignorant roots still permeate throughout society's impression of the queer and gender queer communities today. it's frustrating with so much media attention to the "gay agenda" and the "gay lifestyle" that still so little is known that we find ourselves having to explain who we are before we can even get to a political discussion of the rights we want/deserve.
anyway, i'm always impressed with what you have to offer. happy memorial day to you and all the soldiers and vets out there, old and new, and every other identity in between. :)
Submitted by 2966 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-05-25 23:51.
"well only women like men like that, so obviously if you like men and ARE a man, then you're really a woman in a man's body, which is equally weird, but that's just how it works. right?"
twisted logic is fun for the whole family.