1. Leonard Matlovich was the first gay service member to purposely out himself to the military to fight their ban on gays, and perhaps the best-known openly gay man in the United States of America in the 1970s next to Harvey Milk.
22 Facts About Leonard Matlovich
1. 2.
Leonard Matlovich's fight to stay in the United States Air Force after coming out of the closet became a cause celebre around which the gay community rallied.
3.
Leonard Matlovich's case resulted in articles in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, numerous television interviews, and a television movie on NBC.
4.
Leonard Matlovich's photograph appeared on the cover of the September 8,1975, issue of Time magazine, making him a symbol for thousands of gay and lesbian servicemembers and gay people generally.
5.
Leonard Matlovich spent his childhood living on military bases, primarily throughout the Southern United States.
6.
Leonard Matlovich spent much of his teenage years in Charleston, South Carolina, attending the Catholic Bishop England High School.
7.
Leonard Matlovich volunteered for service in Vietnam and served three tours of duty.
8.
Leonard Matlovich "came out" to his friends, but continued to conceal the fact from his commanding officer.
9.
Leonard Matlovich became so successful that the Air Force sent him around the country to coach other instructors.
10.
Leonard Matlovich gradually came to believe that the discrimination faced by gays was similar to that faced by African Americans.
11.
Leonard Matlovich contacted Kameny, who told him he had long been looking for a gay service member with a perfect record to create a test case to challenge the military's ban on gays.
12.
Leonard Matlovich was so stunned she refused to tell Matlovich's father.
13.
Leonard Matlovich sued for reinstatement, but the legal process was a long one, with the case moving back and forth between United States District and Circuit Courts.
14.
When, by September 1980, the Air Force had failed to provide US District Court Judge Gerhard Gesell an explanation of why Leonard Matlovich did not meet its criteria for exception, Gesell ordered him reinstated into the Air Force and promoted.
15.
Leonard Matlovich was first excommunicated on October 7,1975, in Norfolk, Virginia, and then again January 17,1979.
16.
Leonard Matlovich sold his Guerneville restaurant in 1984, moving to Europe for a few months where, during a visit to the joint grave of lovers Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas and the grave of gay writer Oscar Wilde in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France, he got the idea for a gay memorial in the United States.
17.
In 1986, Leonard Matlovich felt fatigued, then contracted a prolonged chest cold he seemed unable to shake.
18.
Leonard Matlovich's tombstone, meant to be a memorial to all gay veterans, does not bear his name.
19.
Leonard Matlovich chose the same row where the graves of FBI Director J Edgar Hoover and Hoover's longtime Assistant Director and heir Clyde Tolson are, as a kind of "last laugh".
20.
San Francisco resident Michael Bedwell, a close friend and the original executor of Leonard Matlovich's estate, created a website in honor of Leonard Matlovich and other gay US veterans.
21.
Leonard Matlovich's gravesite has been a site of attraction and ceremony for LGBT rights activists since his interment including an annual LGBT Veterans Day observance, and several individuals and couples have chosen to be buried in Congressional Cemetery identifying their being gay on their tombstones per his suggestion such as Gittings and her partner Kay Tobin Lahusen.
22.
Leonard Matlovich's grave is the starting point for the annual Pride Run 5K sponsored by DC Front Runners, a running, walking, and social club serving Washington DC's LGBT people and their friends.