Cliff Arnesen
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Cliff Arnesen is an American veteran and bisexual rights activist.[1] He joined the Army in 1965.[1] When they discovered that he was not heterosexual, he was arrested and paraded through Fort Dix at gunpoint, court-martialed, and made to serve a year in a military prison for his bisexuality, where he received death threats.[1] In 1967 he was given an “Undesirable Discharge,” but in 1977 he petitioned the Department of the Army for an upgrade in discharge, which was granted and changed from “Undesirable” to “General Under Honorable Conditions.”[2][3][4]
In 1989 Arnesen testified before Congress on behalf of bisexual, lesbian, and gay veteran's issues.[5][6] He was the first veteran to testify about bisexual, lesbian, and gay issues and the first openly non-heterosexual veteran to testify on Capitol Hill about veteran's issues in general.[5] He testified on May 3, 1989, during formal hearings held before the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs: Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.[7] He also testified before the same Subcommittee on May 16, 1990, as part of an HIV/AIDS panel.[3][7][6][2]
Arnesen is also the former president of the New England Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Veterans, and a founding member and former National Vice President, Legislative Affairs of the Lesbian & Bisexual Veterans of America, which is now known as the American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER).[2][3][6] He was a board member on the National Bisexual Advisory Board and a Medical Patient Services Assistant for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.[8][2] As of 2014 he is a member of Alexander Hamilton, American Legion Post 448.[2]
In 2014 he was awarded The Brenda Howard Memorial Award, but he was unable to attend the ceremony.[8][9]
He was interviewed as part of "background interviews" for the book Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the US Military, by Randy Shilts.[10] He also contributed the piece "Coming Out to Congress" to the book Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out, edited by Loraine Hutchins and Lani Ka'ahumanu .[11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Celebrating the End of DADT as Bisexuals". The Huffington Post.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "PFLAG Queens Chapter - 2013 Awardees Bio Page".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "2010 Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repealed! A look back at Bi one veteran's story". binetusa.org.
- ↑ "Remembering Bi Veterans on Memorial Day – and wearing a Green Armband".
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "BiNet USA". binetusa.org.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Gay Military Signal 0905HistoryII".
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "First Person Biography of a Bisexual US Army Veteran". GLAAD. Archived from the original on 2022-11-27. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Queens PFLAG NYC Chapter Honors Cliff Arnesen and New Out LGBT members of the New York City Council". Transgender Bisexual Political Nerd.
- ↑ "PFLAG Queens Chapter - 2013 Awards Luncheon Page". pflag-queens.org.
- ↑ Randy Shilts (16 December 2014). Conduct Unbecoming: Gays & Lesbians in the U.S. Military. Open Road Media. pp. 754–. ISBN 978-1-4976-8315-0. Search this book on
- ↑ "b i · a n y · o t h e r · n a m e".
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