Leonard Matlovich
✓ Source-basedfallingAmerican Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star (1943-1988)
United StatesLived 1943 to 1988 · aged 44Technical Sergeant Leonard Phillip Matlovich was an American Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.
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![Matlovich's tombstone at the Congressional Cemetery, which reads:When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.\""}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwAQw">"A Gay Vietnam VeteranWhen I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Leonard_Matlovich_tombstone.jpg/1280px-Leonard_Matlovich_tombstone.jpg)
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About this person
Technical Sergeant Leonard Phillip Matlovich was an American Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He was the first gay service member to purposely out himself to the military to fight their ban on gay people, and perhaps the best-known openly gay man in the United States of America in the 1970s next to Harvey Milk. His fight to stay in the United States Air Force after coming out of the closet became a cause célèbre around which the gay community rallied. His case resulted in articles in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, numerous television interviews, and a television movie on NBC.
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