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| Photograph courtesy of the Lavender Names Undertaking |
To increase the attain of this necessary story, the Fellow Vacationers tour consortium is partnering with the American LGBTQ+ Museum on the Lavender Names Undertaking, a nationwide, grassroots archival analysis and neighborhood outreach initiative that may share the tales of LGBTQ+ neighborhood members who had been fired or discriminated towards by native and federal governments. Listed here are just a few of their tales.
Amber Ferenz
I used to be discharged from the US Military in February of 2001 beneath DADT [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] at Hunter Military Airfield. Earlier than my discharge, I received Soldier of the Quarter at Brigade stage, and was serving in a MI unit as an Arabic linguist. In the course of the competitors, I ran two terrifying miles on toes that I couldn’t really feel due to the chilly. I used to be secretly residing with my girlfriend off base, and I knew it was solely a matter of time earlier than somebody figured me out. One afternoon I used to be sitting on the base promotion workplace, too drained to get out of the automobile. I used to be watching the mud transfer within the watery daylight when the mud stopped shifting, and I heard a voice: “If you wish to proceed to be a superb particular person, it’s a must to get out, and it’s a must to do it now. You don’t have a lot time.” Then the mud began shifting once more, and the sky was nonetheless there. I discovered that in that timeless second I had give up, and simply wanted to search out the door. I discovered it throughout Sergeant College, the place I outed myself to the Commandant and First Sergeant. They despatched me house after making an attempt to get me to return within the closet and unsay what I had mentioned, and I went by way of the entire ritual humiliation a fast month-long queer outprocessing can supply. I hit the Appalachian Path with my girlfriend, and we hiked for just a few months till I knew I used to be going again into classical music.
Leon Ingall
I by no means met my cousin Leon Ingall and Warren Kronemeyer, his associate of 58 years. Twenty years after their deaths, I realized that Warren required further help as the first caregiver of Leon who was affected by Alzheimer’s. Their social employee Janet requested why Leon wasn’t receiving help from the VA. Warren confessed that Leon had no well being advantages. Leon was discharged from the navy with out honor as a result of he was gay. I used to be in a position to procure Leon’s Part 8 discharge papers from the Nationwide Archives. Regardless of his expertise as an intelligence observer and translation, he was deemed mentally unfit for service. Warren and Leon’s social employee urged them to have a Vermont civil union in 2001. They had been reluctant to take action as homosexual gents of a sure period, however they realized that this was the one chance of receiving the care they wanted.
Story shared by Andrew Ingall
Steve Marose
In 1988 after faculty, I joined the Air Power as an plane upkeep officer. This was pre Don’t Ask, Don’t Inform, and homosexual women and men had been being drummed out of the navy as unfit for service. As my sexual identification blossomed, I battled with how one can stay the covert double life that was required of LGBTQ navy members at the moment.
In the meantime I used to be distinguishing myself as a high officer—honor graduate from Plane Upkeep Officer coaching, department of the 12 months, vp of the Firm Grade Officers Council. All of it got here crashing down in 1990, when an investigation into an enlisted pal led to my being court docket martialed for 3 counts of consensual sodomy and a couple of counts of conduct unbecoming an officer (for going to an off-limits homosexual bar and for letting an enlisted man keep at my residence for a brief interval). I used to be going through 17 years in jail, and regardless that the prosecutor publicly commented that I ought to simply be discharged, I used to be sentenced to 2 years at Fort Leavenworth.
After my launch, outdated pals informed me {that a} mild had gone out in me throughout that point. However what? One other had been ignited as a result of I emerged as a militantly out homosexual man. By no means once more would I deny who I used to be—for any firm, for any particular person, not for a single second. Over the subsequent couple many years, as I grew to become extra lively within the homosexual rights motion, I witnessed a sea change in attitudes, not solely within the navy however within the nation as an entire. A lot progress has been made for LGBTQ People. We are able to serve our nation overtly and proudly, marry those we love, and stay our lives unabashedly true to ourselves. My ex-husband is now married to an overtly homosexual Commander within the Navy. In so some ways, it acquired higher.
Within the comply with up piece to my CBS interview in 2023, it was reported that the Pentagon was going to lastly begin wanting into discharges for sexual orientation throughout Do not Ask, Do not Inform, after which look again earlier than that. The CBS reporter insisted my case performed an enormous function in that. In the summertime of 2024, the Biden White Home introduced they’d pardon 1000’s of veterans who had been convicted beneath Article 125 purely primarily based on their sexual orientation. I used to be one in all solely a handful of veterans who even utilized because of the stringent standards, and 4 US representatives wrote a letter to the pardon chief on my behalf demanding I be totally pardoned. I additionally utilized for a discharge improve by way of the Air Power evaluation board, utilized for veterans advantages, and for a NEXUS go to have the ability to journey to Canada regardless of my felony prices (which Canada promptly accepted on their finish). The selections on all my functions weren’t made till simply after the change in administrations, and aside from receiving ONE pardon, all had been denied.
There’s hope although—when my discharge improve evaluation was finalized in late 2025, the unique denial was overturned and I’m now an honorably discharged veteran. I’m persevering with to attraction the remainder. Irrespective of the end result, I stay my life with out disgrace.
Frank Kameny
Frank Kameny served in World Warfare II and later labored on the US Military Map Service after incomes his Harvard PhD in astronomy. Quickly after, he was questioned about his sexual orientation, refused to reply, and was fired—then banned from all future authorities work. He fought again, turning into the primary particular person to pursue a sexual orientation civil rights case in U.S. courts.
Kameny went on to turn out to be the primary overtly homosexual candidate for Congress. His activism helped take away homosexuality from the listing of psychiatric problems in 1973, led to the repeal of D.C.’s sodomy legal guidelines in 1993, and gave us the rallying cry “Homosexual is Good.”
Bree Fram
Bree Fram is an astronautical engineer, public coverage professional, creator, speaker, and retired US Area Power colonel. She was compelled to retire from the navy on the finish of 2025 resulting from Presidential coverage concerning transgender folks. In her closing project she was stationed on the Pentagon the place she developed the necessities for future Area Power capabilities. Bree got here out publicly as transgender on the day the transgender ban within the navy was dropped in 2016. She transitioned whereas in a command place and served by way of the re-imposition of a transgender ban from 2019–2021. At her dismissal, she was the very best rating out transgender officer within the navy and he or she was the primary, and solely, out transgender officer chosen for and promoted to the grade of O-6.
Previous to recommissioning into the Area Power in 2021, Bree served 18 years in all kinds of Air Power positions together with a Analysis and Improvement command place and an oversight function for all Air Power safety cooperation exercise with Iraq. In earlier assignments, Bree served within the Air Power Directorate of Strategic Plans, as a Legislative Fellow on the US Capitol on the workers of Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo, a number of excursions as a program supervisor for satellite tv for pc and know-how applications, and deployed to Qatar and Iraq as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Bree has appeared on nationwide and worldwide media, together with ABC and NBC Nightly Information, France 24, BBC, PBS Information Hour, and NPR. Her writing has been featured within the New York Instances, Washington Publish, Protection One, Army Instances, Inkstick, and LGBTQ Nation.
Bree just lately introduced that she is operating for Congress in Virginia.
Fellow Vacationers is on stage February 21–March 1, 2026 at McCaw Corridor. Be taught extra and purchase tickets at seattleopera.org/fellowtravelers.
Are you a member of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood who has been impacted by employment discrimination by the federal government? The Lavender Names Undertaking desires to share your story. Your photograph can be included in a visible archive that may seem on stage on the finish of every efficiency. Be taught extra and submit at americanlgbtqmuseum.org/lavender-names-project.
