Vernon Berg III; His Lawsuit Changed Military Policy on Gays

Vernon E. Berg III, whose lawsuit against the military is credited with ending its practice of giving homosexuals less than honorable discharges, has died in New York at the age of 47.

Berg, who died Jan. 27 from complications of AIDS, was one of the first officers to fight the military after he was discharged because of his homosexuality.

An Annapolis graduate, Berg held the rank of ensign when he was discharged in June 1976.

He had disclosed his homosexuality to his commanding officer in late 1975, saying he could no longer be hypocritical. The Navy responded by ordering an administrative hearing and telling him he would receive an “other than honorable discharge.”

Berg sued for reinstatement. But in May 1977, before a federal court ruling could be handed down, Navy Secretary W. Graham Claytor Jr. ordered that Berg’s discharge be upgraded to honorable.

Berg continued to press for reinstatement. In December 1978, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the dishonorable discharges of both Berg and Tech. Sgt. Leonard P. Matlovich of the Air Force had been unfair. The court did not, however, reinstate them to duty, as both men had wanted.

What did come of the lawsuit, though, was an armed forces policy eliminating homosexuality as a cause for dishonorable discharge.

Matlovich, who similarly received an honorable discharge, died of AIDS in 1988 at the age of 44.