Perry Watkins was 19-years old when he received his Army call-up papers in August 1967. It was the middle of the Vietnam War so, like to most other young American men, he didn’t want to go.

Watkins had been openly gay since he was a school student and made no exception when it came to completing his Army papers. When it came to the question ‘Are you a homosexual?’, he ticked the ‘Yes’ box.  In doing so, he assumed that that would be the end of his draft procedure and he would be rejected as unsuitable. But that didn’t happen.

“They sent me in to a psychiatrist, who said to me – he baited me, it was funny and I knew what he was doing. He came in and he says, “Why did you check this box ‘yes’? And I went, because you asked me to fill in the form honestly.” “Well, do you object to going in the military?” “No!” I didn’t want to go into the military. Who did?”

He was also seen by an Army doctor at his induction examination in May 1968. And, again, he was open about being homosexual. And the doctor declared him “qualified for military service.” Thus began his career in the US Army.

His initial posting was as a chaplain’s assistant but he was quickly removed from that position – because he was gay! But he still wasn’t discharged; simply moved to the position of personnel clerk.

While he was in this post he was sexually assaulted by five other soldiers. But when he reported it, the authorities merely questioned him about men that he had had sex with:

“Do you know what the military did? What they investigated was not the assault. Their only question was, “Will you give us the names of two people you’ve had sexual relationships with?” The fact that five men sexually assault another man in your barracks is not of interest to you.”

Watkins made three separate applications to be discharged in his first six months in the Army. These were largely to avoid ‘dishonourable discharge’ proceedings that he felt would inevitably happen in the future because of his sexuality. But his applications were all turned down – even after the sexual assault and the subsequent fiasco.

And so he remained in the Army until he was discharged at the end of his tour of duty in May 1970. Then, unable to find a good job, he re-enlisted a year later. And when he did, he was open about his sexuality. And still the Army let him back in.

Indeed, he regularly performed in drag as ‘Simone’, both outside and inside the West German Army base where he was stationed. Rather than causing problems for himself or the Army, his drag act was so successful it lead to him performing at other US bases around Europe.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was ‘investigated’ during this term of service – although it seems that investigators were more interested in getting the names of other gay service men. Interestingly, when he refused to provide any, the investigation was simply dropped, without any action being taken against him for refusing to provide the information they sought.