Aids The Next Battleground For Watkins Soldier Who Fought Anti-Gay Policy Now Fights Disease

Perry Watkins, booted out of the military for being gay, fought for his career and won. Now, he’s faced with another challenge: his deteriorating health.

Watkins, the first openly gay person to serve long-term in the modern military, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court when the Army booted him after 15 years of service.

He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1990, a year after he won reinstatement. Earlier this month, he had his right leg amputated above the knee because of cancer and infections.

“You hold up as long as you can,” Watkins, 46, said in a recent interview.

Friends are staying with him at his home as he recuperates from the amputation. Others stop in to cook, filling the refrigerator with meals and snacks.

Watkins often tires easily, but still gets fired up when talking about his case, which is unique because he was open about his homosexuality from the time he was drafted in 1968 into an Army that banned gays.

The Army kept him, promoted him and reenlisted him despite being told at every turn he was gay. When it discharged him in 1984 for being gay, he went to court.

His case reached the Supreme Court, ending with his reinstatement in 1991 with $135,000 in back pay and a promotion. He retired immediately after 22 years of service.

“If you’re going to take me as an acknowledged homosexual, then you have no right to complain about me being homosexual,” Watkins said. “Basically, I made it boil down to being treated exactly the same as a heterosexual person. And that’s what we’re really fighting for.”

He is critical of the Clinton administration’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

A federal judge in New York ruled Thursday that the policy is discriminatory and violates free speech.

“That is not freedom,” Watkins said of the policy. “You want me in your military as who I am. It’s a matter of pride in yourself.”

He says some gays didn’t support his cause simply because he is black. Gays lost ground by choosing instead to take up later cases of gays who concealed their sexual orientation and then were booted when they eventually came forward or were found out, Watkins says.

“I was an openly gay person being allowed to serve in the military without compromise. Had racism in the community not reared its ugly head, we might have made a great deal of progress.”

In the ruling on Watkins’ case, the courts sidestepped the question of gays’ constitutional rights, saying only the Army couldn’t throw him out for being gay after repeatedly re-enlisting him.

But the case had a lasting impact anyway, said Denny Lee, a spokesman for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, which defends the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

“As someone who was out as a gay man in his unit, his presence helped defuse and refute the government’s argument about how having openly gay and lesbian people serving disrupts military capability,” Lee said.

“In Watkins’ case it was pretty clear that didn’t happen. He was able to serve with distinction.”