United States Army is a breathtaking must-read. The 1983 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Watkins v. Also below, you’ll find a complete transcript of the episode. There’s more to learn about Perry Watkins and his landmark legal case than you hear in his Making Gay History interview, so please have a look at the resources and links that follow below. Supreme Court and after an eight-year battle won reinstatement-one of the first to do so.
With the help of the ACLU, he fought his case all the way to the U.S. Perry didn’t just walk away with his tail between his legs. Then after fifteen years of exemplary service, they threw him out. Born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1948 and drafted in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War, openly gay nineteen-year-old Perry had every reason to believe he’d never serve-not because he objected to serving his country, but because the U.S. The story of Perry Watkins and his experience with the U.S. Episode NotesĪ lot of stories that are called Kafkaesque aren’t really. Credit: ©Steve Stewart for Positive Image: A Portrait of Gay America, published by William Morrow & Company,1985. Perry Watkins near his home in Tacoma, Washington, 1983.
