On March 6, 1975, after meeting with Frank Kameny and ACLU attorney David Addlestone, Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich—Vietnam veteran, Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient, and lecturer on race relations in the Air Force—delivered to his commanding officers a letter explaining that he was homosexual, that his "sexual preferences will in no way interfer[e] with my Air Force duties," and "therefore request[ing] that those [regulations] relating to the discharge of homosexuals be waived in my case." From there, Matlovich became the face of the fight against the military's ban, and his appearance on the September 8, 1975, issue of Time magazine made him the first openly gay person on the cover of a U.S. news magazine. Unlike many others in his place, Matlovich received an honorable discharge, and a court ultimately ordered his reinstatement; Matlovich, however, took a financial settlement. In 1987, Matlovich announced he had contracted HIV; that June, he was among those arrested at the White House while protesting the Reagan administration's response to AIDS. Leonard Matlovich died on June 22, 1988
@fasc1nate HIV is such a devastating virus. I’m encouraged to see that there have been significant improvements in its treatment, especially since the 1970s when this Veteran’s story transpired
@bradflix86 @fasc1nate I think they've had the cure but....how do you make money for the Stockholder's?🤔🤔