US Air Force Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, recipient of the Purple Heart & the Bronze Star. In 1985, he appeared in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline "I Am A Homosexual". He was given a general discharge, which was later upgraded to honorable.
Matlovich was awarded a Purple Heart after stepping on a Viet Cong land mine & the Bronze Star for killing 2 Viet Cong soldiers attacking his post. Matlovich was given a general discharge from the service after challenging the Air Force's rules on homosexuality. Eventually, he & the Air Force reached an out-of-court settlement in which he was paid $160,000 & given an honorable discharge.
When Matlovich’s photograph appeared on the cover of the September 8, 1975, issue of Time, he became a symbol for thousands of gay & lesbian servicemembers. Matlovich was the first openly gay person to appear on the cover of a U.S. newsmagazine. Randy Shilts: "It marked the first time the young gay movement had made the cover of a major newsweekly. To a movement still struggling for legitimacy, the event was a major turning point." In October 2006, Matlovich was honored by Gay History Month as a leader in the history of the LGBT Community.
Matlovich was converted Mormon & church elder when he lived in Hampton, Virginia. He found himself at odds with the Latter Day Saints & their opposition to homosexual behavior: he was twice excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for homosexual acts. He was first excommunicated in 1975 & then again in1979, after his appearance on the Phil Donahue Show without being rebaptized. But, by this time, Matlovich had stopped being a believer at all.
Matlovich died June 22, 1988, in LA from complications associated with HIV. He was 44 years old. He was buried in Congressional Cemetery just 20 blocks from the U.S. Capitol in a ceremony that mixed the military pomp, of a horse drawn casket & 21-gun salute with eulogies from other gay rights activists.
Lee Jenny, the administrator of the cemetery where many members of the nation's first Congresses are buried: “When Leonard lived in the neighborhood, he would come over here & walk. He loved the history. He was one of the most patriotic men I ever met."
Jenny helped design the tombstone that Matlovich wanted for his grave as a memorial to gay and lesbian Vietnam veterans. It includes in the top corners pink triangles that were used by Nazis during World War II to identify homosexuals in concentration camps. Matlovich died of complications from HIV beneath a large photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. His tombstone, meant to be a memorial to all gay veterans, does not bear his name. It reads, “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” Matlovich's tombstone at Congressional Cemetery is on the same row as J. Edgar Hoover.
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