To photographer Mel Porter, one of the clearest examples of the Trump administration’s antipathy for the LGBTQ+ community isn’t what it’s done, but what it has stopped doing.
“I actually do work for the Veterans Hospital in Buffalo,” Porter said. “And one of the things that’s been noticeable is, the last two years, we haven’t flown any Pride flags. There’s nothing around the hospital.”
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Last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs unveiled new rules banning any flags other than the American flag from being displayed on VA property. Porter says the absence of the rainbow standard during Pride month speaks to an effort to silence the community and erase their contributions to the military.
While the Trump administration’s ban on trans service members is the most overt act of anti-LGBTQ+ animosity in Trump’s second term, erasing acknowledgement of the broader community in the military is a subtler but no less damaging tactic in the administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ crusade.
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Porter, along with fellow artist Jovana Babović, aims to counter that censorship with the pair’s Queer Veterans Project. Earlier this month, a show documenting LGBTQ+ service members’ time in the military opened at a queer-forward shop in Rochester, New York.
“I think when we get these stories out there, it opens it up for other people to come, and they want to hear this,” Porter told Spectrum News 1 at the opening. “I mean, I think we see this tonight. You know, this is amazing. I can’t believe this turnout.”
One of the attendees was U.S. Army veteran Bill Gierchak, a subject of the show.
“I did serve, from 2002 to 2010, during ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’” Gierchak said. “I served overseas in Iraq from 2004 to 2005. You feel shame, and you feel embarrassment because everybody else gets to walk around and be proud of who they are, because you want to be proud of your service. But you can’t be proud of yourself. And so, for the first time, I spoke about my service and myself being gay. And the response so far has just been incredible.”
The owner of the venue, Rainbow Cammo’s Malcolm Keim, said, “There is goodness in the world, and it’s going to be on full display here today.”
“We have kids that are brought up to believe that something is wrong with them,” Keim said. “Active duty military cannot speak out publicly about political issues. Somebody has to voice it.”
Project co-founder Porter said the show is answering questions he couldn’t address himself after deciding he couldn’t serve.
“Back in 1998, I wanted to go into the military, but I also had already come out and knew I was gay,” Porter said. “And so I just couldn’t imagine going back into the closet.”
“But I also came from a military family, so it was really something that I wanted to do, and in the end, I chose not to do it. And I’ve always been curious why somebody would choose to do it.”
“They’ll take you in. They’ll still use you for what they need,” Porter said, but “the military makes it known that, as an LGBTQ person, you’re not really wanted in the military yet.”
Despite those obstacles, though, Porter documents stories of LGBTQ+ people at home in their military service.
“It’s important to let people know that if you choose to go into the military as a gay person, you can thrive,” Porter said.
“If what I’ve done as a small part of this project encourages another gay veteran, or a young gay kid who wants to serve, my work is done,” show participant Gierchak said.
“I have gratitude. I have gratitude for the project and gratitude for the community supporting the project, and for the incredible response that I received to my interview from everyone, even people I don’t know. It’s really been just a joy.”
“At the end of almost every single interview, people tell us how therapeutic it felt talking to us, telling their story,” Porter shared. “We have had people tell us that they have been asked before about their time in the military, but it’s typically about who they’ve killed or what they’ve witnessed, but never really about their service as a queer person.”
The Queer Veterans Project is on exhibit through the end of June.
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