These gay ex-soldiers reject the traditional organizations for veterans or homosexuals. They have created a unique American Legion post to aid in . . . : The Battle at Home

The tall doors in the somber halls of the War Memorial Veterans Building give no indication that anything unusual happens here.

On the doors are names of American Legion posts--Golden Gate Post No. 40, San Francisco Police Post No. 456, Hellenic Post No. 230.

But cross the lobby of the massive gray granite structure, climb the marble steps to a second-floor room and discover members of one post planning a demonstration in the event President Clinton failed to lift the ban against homosexuals in the military. (That demonstration is being held here today in response to Clinton’s announcement Monday of an easing of the ban but continuation of most Armed Services procedures regarding homosexuals.)

A speaker at the post meeting urges members to write congressmen in support of a Navy man held in Leavenworth Prison on sodomy charges. Members could buy $12 T-shirts proclaiming a gay Air Force activist’s epitaph: “They Gave Me A Medal for Killing Two Men and A Discharge for Loving One.” Information is provided about upgrading military discharges for homosexuality.

This is the monthly meeting of Alexander Hamilton Post 448, so named because some historians argue that Hamilton’s letters indicate he was homosexual.

It is the only gay group affiliated with the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (The Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America has 44 chapters and about 7,500 members nationwide, but is not affiliated with a traditional veterans group.)

Spurred by controversy over Clinton’s anticipated action, membership in the Hamilton Post has jumped from 200 to more than 300 in six weeks. The members, who have served in conflicts ranging from World War I to the Persian Gulf, include about 30 lesbians and 100 veterans outside California.

About 50 showed up at the regular monthly meeting last Thursday night, a day before Clinton said he would announce his decision about regulations for gays in the military.

“I feel good here. Number one, you don’t have to worry about being attacked,” says former Air Force Staff Sgt. Maurice Hardy. “You can be yourself among people of like mind.”

The crew-cut, bearded Hardy, who spent eight years on active duty and 10 in the reserves beginning in 1969, also belongs to a VFW chapter.

His experience in the VFW illustrates the difficulties for some gay veterans in traditional organizations. “There are quite a few homophobic people,” he says. “One of our officers started shouting obscenities because he thought we were going to let gays into the group, even though I was there.”

Former Sgt. Diana Vasquez says she joined the Hamilton Post because other Legion chapters are too male-oriented. The Army Teletype operator was discharged in 1983, ending a seven-year career, when she developed emotional problems and a subsequent military investigation found a tape in which she said she thought she was a lesbian.

“They (other chapters) are old-boy networks,” says Vasquez, who helped set up security communications during the 1980 presidential campaign. “Alexander Hamilton accepts women. It’s a younger post. They want to move for change.”

Other members say the post provides a haven unavailable in liberal-leaning gay civic groups.

“I have experiences not many people understand, particularly in San Francisco with the large pacifist population,” says Navy veteran Robert White, who supervised mechanics working on nuclear reactors on a guided missile cruiser.

“It’s important to support your feelings and what you did in the military because you’re proud of it. I was ready to dedicate 20 years of my life to it.”

Although members of the post are united by homosexuality, their experiences vary widely. Some hid their sexual orientation for fear of reprisal; some were more open but discreet and were protected by their commanders; and some were discharged.

White, 29, graduated from Corona Del Mar High School in 1983. He was in the Persian Gulf in 1988 when U.S. warships sank Iranian navy ships and attacked Iranian oil platforms.

“Everyone knew I was gay,” he says. “There was a little gay community of about 30 people. It was no secret. It just wasn’t officially recognized. The whole philosophy in the Navy is as long as they don’t have to deal with it, you can do anything you want. As long as you’re not caught having sex with someone on ship, they can ignore it.”

But worrying about being discharged was causing stress, White says. He felt he couldn’t work up to potential.

So on a warm, clear morning in Subic Bay in the Philippines, just before his second trip to the Persian Gulf, White moved a few feet away from other crew members on deck and asked his department head for assurances that his sexual orientation wouldn’t affect his career. The conference lasted only a few seconds.

“He said, ‘You’re a good petty officer, but if you say certain words to me, my hands are tied. I have to send you home. So do you want to stay on board or go home?’

“I said, ‘I want to stay.’

“He said, ‘Then there’s no problem. Get to work.’ ”

Other post members tell different stories.

Navy Lt. Chuck Schoen was discharged in 1963, a year short of receiving his 20-year pension, for having sex off base.

After his sexual partners signed statements, investigators told the electronics technician that conviction could mean five years for each charge of illegal sexual activity. Schoen, now 68, elected to take a dishonorable discharge, which he later appealed and won an elevation to honorable.

Warren Kopp, a corporal and a company clerk for 30 months in Korea during the war there, says he hid his sexual identity because he feared court martial.

“Everyone kept it under cover,” he says.

Kopp wrote official letters requesting commendations for his combat team and did drawings of his fellow soldiers’ girlfriends based on pictures they provided.

“I came along very well with no problems,” he says.

Paul Hardman, 70, a boilermaker on World War II destroyers, says a commanding officer suspected him (incorrectly) of being the lover of the former commander and tried to transfer him to an active combat zone. Hardman kept his sexual orientation private. “You made good friends, but you still minded your own business,” he says.

Hardman started the Hamilton Post 10 years ago. The post was accepted as an affiliate chapter of the American Legion under threat of a lawsuit in 1984. Then, the state organization put up obstacles, he says.

The state office required the post to retain a chaplain who was an ordained clergyman, not just one of the members as is the case in other posts. (The group found a gay rabbi who was a veteran to serve as chaplain.) To form a new American Legion chapter required 15 members with honorable discharges. Members of the Alexander Hamilton Post had to present discharge papers twice before being accepted.

Relations with state headquarters remain difficult. Charles Allemann, who heads the California American Legion from an office down the hall from the Hamilton Post, says, “We have 170,000 members in California. They have about 200. They feel that theirs is the only cause.”

Currently the San Francisco Human Rights Commission is mediating a complaint from the Hamilton Post that the Legion’s California magazine refused its advertisement.

Allemann says the complaint has not been relayed to the Legion, but the magazine has the right to refuse material “against the policy of the national organization.”

Lee Harris, deputy director of public relations at the American Legion’s national headquarters in Indianapolis, says the Hamilton Post is in good standing.

However, last May the Legion, the largest veterans group in the country with 3.1 million members, passed a resolution reaffirming support of the military policy “that homosexuality is incompatible with military service.” It also urged Congress to codify the ban on homosexuals in the services.

Clinton’s decision on that issue Monday disappointed Alexander Hamilton members.

“You don’t ask heterosexuals about private activity,” says former Major Cliff Anchor, who retired from the specialist reserve of the National Guard in 1988.

“All this goes back to Harry Truman,” says Maurice Hardy. “He didn’t ask any generals’ or senators’ permission when he overturned the rules against blacks in the service. He just did it. I think history will show Bill Clinton as a weak president when he had the opportunity to be a great one.”

Most members did not see Clinton’s need to court congressional votes on the deficit reduction bill as sufficient reason to violate his campaign promise on the military ban.

“My civil rights are just as important as the federal deficit,” says former Air Force intelligence analyst Tim Rump, who was discharged in 1990 after four people made statements that he told them he was homosexual. “If they want to cut the federal deficit, they can stop spending millions a year discharging gays from the military. They waste an obscene amount of money.”

Rump says gay veterans will continue fighting for equal rights. “I think you’ll find that the stronger emotions on this issue will come from people who have experienced discrimination. People like myself are not going to go away.”

White also vowed to continue.

“They are saying as long as you don’t tell us, it’s OK. Lie and be celibate for 20 years.

“They somehow think that that’s right, and they’re wrong. Are they going to make straight people be celibate for 20 years?

“Not only do we have to risk our lives. Not only do we have to give up our civilian privileges and rights, but we have to lie. And yet we love our country so much that people will still serve, just as they always have.

“I fought for this country and risked my life for this country. And I’m going to fight to the end for my rights, and no bigot’s going to tell me otherwise.”