Obituaries : Services for L. Matlovich; Gay Vet Who Was Discharged by Air Force

Leonard Matlovich, a Vietnam War hero whose 1975 discharge from the Air Force for his homosexuality became a rallying point for gay rights activists, was buried here Saturday with full military honors.

Matlovich, 44, died June 22 in Los Angeles from complications associated with AIDS. He was buried in Congressional Cemetery just 20 blocks from the U.S. Capitol in a ceremony that mixed the military pomp of a horse-drawn caisson and 21-gun salute with eulogies from other gay rights activists.

“The Air Force finally did it right and on Leonard’s terms today,” said Frank Kameny, a Washington gay rights activist. “It’s a pity that they didn’t do it 13 years ago.”

Matlovich was awarded a Purple Heart after stepping on a Viet Cong land mine and the Bronze Star for killing two Viet Cong soldiers attacking his post. Matlovich was given a general discharge from the service after challenging the Air Force’s rules on homosexuality. Later, he and the Air Force reached an out-of-court settlement in which he was paid $160,000 and given an honorable discharge.

“When Leonard lived in the neighborhood, he would come over here and walk,” Lee Jenny, the administrator of the cemetery where many members of the nation’s first Congresses are buried, recalled Saturday. “He loved the history. He was one of the most patriotic men I ever met.”

Jenny helped design the tombstone that Matlovich wanted for his grave as a memorial to gay and lesbian Vietnam veterans. It includes in the top corners pink triangles that were used by Nazis during World War II to identify homosexuals in concentration camps that have since been adopted as a symbol in the gay rights struggle.