A Gay Veteran Recalls Having to Discharge Other Gay Soldiers in 'The Typist'
The Typist provides a unique interview with a veteran who was in charge of discharging gay soldiers during the Korean war.
With the recent debate of whether or not transgender soldiers should be allowed to serve in the military, we are reminded of the debate from not too long ago surrounding “Don't Ask Don't Tell” and whether or not gay servicemen and women had a place in the armed forces. Hopefully in the future homophobia will not prevent people who are willing an able from serving their country, but until we reach that day it is important not to forget the missteps along the way. The Typist provides a first person account of one of those missteps.
I can't imagine that the life of a soldier is an easy life, but for a gay soldier in a time when being found to be homosexual resulted in an immediate dishonorable discharge, life must have been even more complex. For Otto Bremerman, the soldier in charge of writing up the discharge papers for soldiers who were found out, life as a closeted gay man was even more complex. Otto's story of covert meetings with other gay men on the base provides an …show more content…
For modern audiences, the government funded PSAs warning about the dangers of the homosexual seem comical or almost satirical and it is hard to believe that these ads were taken seriously at the time, but these propaganda pieces were taken seriously by many people at the time and contributed to ruining the lives of many servicemen who were found out to be gay. The inclusion of these propaganda pieces in The Typist serves not only to help set the atmosphere for the time that Bremerman is talking about, but also helps to provide historical evidence for the struggles faced by gay soldiers and LGBT+ people at large at the
The Typist provides a unique interview with a veteran who was in charge of discharging gay soldiers during the Korean war.
With the recent debate of whether or not transgender soldiers should be allowed to serve in the military, we are reminded of the debate from not too long ago surrounding “Don't Ask Don't Tell” and whether or not gay servicemen and women had a place in the armed forces. Hopefully in the future homophobia will not prevent people who are willing an able from serving their country, but until we reach that day it is important not to forget the missteps along the way. The Typist provides a first person account of one of those missteps.
I can't imagine that the life of a soldier is an easy life, but for a gay soldier in a time when being found to be homosexual resulted in an immediate dishonorable discharge, life must have been even more complex. For Otto Bremerman, the soldier in charge of writing up the discharge papers for soldiers who were found out, life as a closeted gay man was even more complex. Otto's story of covert meetings with other gay men on the base provides an …show more content…
For modern audiences, the government funded PSAs warning about the dangers of the homosexual seem comical or almost satirical and it is hard to believe that these ads were taken seriously at the time, but these propaganda pieces were taken seriously by many people at the time and contributed to ruining the lives of many servicemen who were found out to be gay. The inclusion of these propaganda pieces in The Typist serves not only to help set the atmosphere for the time that Bremerman is talking about, but also helps to provide historical evidence for the struggles faced by gay soldiers and LGBT+ people at large at the