I don’t want anything like that, but I’d like a discharge to show I did nothing wrong.”Ī devout Jewish woman, on leaving the Army she considered becoming a rabbi but opted for teaching instead, thereby embarking on a career in education that lasted for 37 years. “I’m going to write to President Biden and find out whether there’s anything that can be done. Ben-Shalom isn’t bothered about not having a military pension, but she is clearly still irked by the injustice as her conduct had been exemplary. In a cruel twist she was denied the pension and benefits usually granted to veterans. The Army subsequently challenged her reenlistment, and in 1990 Ben-Shalom was discharged for a second time and her military career was ended. It showed me that one person can make a difference.” “After 11 gruelling years of fighting, I became the first lesbian to be reinstated to the military after being discharged honourably the first time around. Following discharge, she spent eleven years campaigning before being reinstated:īen-Shalom’s dismissal was overturned in 1980 but the Army refused to comply until they were threatened with fines by the Court of Appeals seven years later. I didn’t want to sashay down the main drag of a military base wearing lavender fatigues, I just wanted to serve.”īen-Shalom is keen to point out that in the court documents she was never accused of misconduct. “I made it very clear when I came out that I was not looking to necessarily make a point. Someone messed with the truck I was driving at the time they loosened the lug nuts and if the tyre had come off when I was on the expressway I probably would have died…It was hard. “I was shot at and I had someone try to kill me with an ice pick. I’m not going to tolerate being threatened by people in the military.” Let’s assign a place and a time I’ll take them on. I went to my commanding officer and said if they want to rock and roll, let’s do it. “When I first came out in the army I got phone threats from people in the military. She answered honestly and her response caught the attention of her superiors she was given an honourable discharge after two years of her three-year tour of duty.īack at base her lesbianism marked her out for harassment, and even attempts on her life.
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Just as Ben-Shalom was graduating from drill sergeant school, a local television reporter caught up with her and asked her how it felt to be a lesbian in the military. Ben-Shalom had been emboldened by Leonard Philip Matlovich, an airman whose uniformed portrait appeared on the front of Time magazine in 1975 with the headline “I am a homosexual.” She recalls her fellow soldiers referring to Matlovich as “a fag” and her reply, “he’s a good airman what difference does it make?”
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Interestingly, given the prohibition on homosexuals in the army, there were no moves to discharge her until a short while later, when she came out publicly on live television. But yes, I am.” That moment changed history, setting her on a course to become the first out person to be reinstated after being discharged under the military’s policy excluding lesbians and gay men from military service. When Ben-Shalom’s commander asked her “are you a homosexual”, she responded with characteristic candour “well the word for me would be lesbian. With a dry laugh she recalls she was told there was “no space for baby killers and GI Janes in the women’s movement.” Undeterred, Ben-Shalom enlisted in the 84th Training Division and became one of the first two female drill sergeants to graduate. When Ben-Shalom joined the military in 1974 protests against the Vietnam war were in full-swing in the midst of the counter cultural revolution, pledging to protect America was not a popular move with her fellow left-leaning feminists. I spoke with her about coming out as lesbian on television in the 1970s, her battle against the US military and the pioneering work she does today to protect the rights of women and girls.
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Miriam Ben-Shalom is what Americans would call ‘a badass.’ Everything about her is direct at 72 her gaze is unwavering, her opinions clear and it seems prudent to assume her aim with a hunting rifle is still sharp. For International Women’s Day this Monday, Jo Bartosch spoke to Ben-Shalom about her military career and her campaigning for the rights of women and girls.
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Army after she was discharged in 1976 for being gay. Miriam Ben-Shalom is the first openly lesbian service member to be reinstated by the U.S.