James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Archives November 2010: GLBT Veterans

On Veterans Day we celebrate and remember the military men and women who have served our country. The Hormel Center houses a few archival collections of GLBT servicemen and women: the Cliff Anchor Papers, the Leonard Matlovich Papers, and the Pat Bond Papers. The Matlovich and Bond papers are on deposit from the GLBT Historical Society of California.

Cliff Anchor was a gay rights activist, military man and radio broadcaster. He was romantically involved with Dr. Tom Dooley and, later, with Leonard Matlovich. Matlovich was a United States Air Force Sergeant who was expelled from the service with a general discharge after he disclosed his homosexuality. Pat Bond was an actress and comedienne; she served in the Women's Army Corps from 1945 to 1947.


In addition, the center has the Randy Shilts Papers. Shilts was a gay San Francisco journalist and author. His book Conduct Unbecoming is about gays in the military. The Shilts collection contains the drafts of the book as well as his collected research notes and interviews with these brave men and women.

In addition to the archival collections, there are books and videos on GLBT servicemen and women and on the issues surrounding gays in the military. You might choose to explore the library's holdings starting with these: Conduct Unbecoming by Randy Shilts, Coming Out Under Fire (also on video) by Allan Berube, and Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (also on video).

No comments: