Video Presents Case for Gays in the Military

Responding to a graphic anti-gay video circulated on Capitol Hill this year, gay activists released their own video Tuesday for distribution to lawmakers and Pentagon officials reviewing the military’s ban on homosexuals.

Called “To Support and Defend,” the video features gays and lesbians who have served in the military, as well as interviews with some of their heterosexual colleagues.

Representatives of several gay organizations, speaking at news conferences in Los Angeles and Washington, described the video as a countermeasure to “The Gay Agenda,” which was prepared by a fundamentalist church in Lancaster and widely distributed in January when controversy flared over President Clinton’s plans to allow homosexuals to openly serve in the armed forces.

“To Support and Defend” casts gays in a different light than the church video, which included scenes of public nudity and lasciviousness and detailed descriptions of sex practices ascribed to gay men by video narrators.

By contrast, in the gay-produced video, Eugene Giannunzio of Atlanta, a heterosexual, has this to say about Lloyd Darling, a gay Green Beret with whom he served in Vietnam: “He died for us. . . . He’s responsible for us living now and returning home.”

In another segment, Maria Zoe Dunning, a Northern California Navy lieutenant moved from active to stand-by reserve status after revealing her homosexuality in January, said: “If they really took into account the lesbians who are in the service right now, how successful they are, I think that a lot of the arguments would just fall apart. I know personally for my ship, of the lesbians I knew on board, if you took all of us off, that ship would not have been able to get under way.”

Introduced by actress Cybill Shepherd, the video was co-produced by Julian Siminski and Rob Wilson of Parade Pictures of Los Angeles.

At the news conference held at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, a coalition of Southern California organizations working to change the military policy also announced a list of Hollywood celebrities endorsing an end to the ban. They include Ted Danson, Bruce Davison, Michael Douglas, Richard Gere, Joan Rivers, Barbra Streisand, Sharon Stone and Patrick Swayze.