Worshiping Bob Dole Erases LGBTQ Grief

We must acknowledge how destructive he was

I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, and this column is not a personal attack. I know the senator’s family are grieving, and I respect that. Nonetheless, as a member of a traditionally despised minority, as a gay man with a long history of LGBTQ/HIV advocacy, I’m tired of seeing queer concerns trivialized and erased, which seems always to happen when conservative leaders pass away. As a society, we must stop doing that.

Senator Dole served in World War II, and like many LGBTQ people, he served with distinction. He was awarded a purple heart for being wounded and a bronze star for bravery. In the photo above, Dole is attending a 1984 victory commemoration in Rome.

I was 900 miles away at the time, a closeted gay man serving in the U.S. Air Force in West Berlin, the recipient of a high-level security clearance I committed a felony to receive. My crime? I swore untruthfully that I was not gay. Just having a same-sex experience in the military in 1984 was a felony-level offense, another crime I’m unashamed to be guilty of. Senator Dole worked to keep that “crime” in place, even though being gay in wartime was a very different story.

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