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Oral History of Harassment of San Antonio Gay Bars (1993)
Happy Foundation
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1993
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Color
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English
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  • Highlights
    Happy Foundation Director Gene Elder recounts the opening of San Antonio Country in April 1973 and the harassment from military personnel that followed
    "They do not want the military associating with homosexuals." On December 21, 1993, just a month after Elder taped his account, the Department of Defense issued Directive 1304.26. Instituted by the Clinton Administration on February 28, 1994, the official US policy prohibited discrimination against closeted LGBTQ service members and applicants but barred openly LGBTQ persons from military service. "Don't ask, don't tell," as it was commonly known, remained in effect until September 20, 2011. 
    Elder reads excerpts from a 1973 court report detailing observations made by military personnel
    The strategy of opening the Bonham Exchange
    More about Arthur "Happy" Veltman, the namesake for the Happy Foundation
    Elder relates other instances of harassment against local gay bars
    On the impact of the San Antonio Country case and the place of San Antonio in the national gay rights movement
    Kay Ford recounts military harassment against her bar, The Jezebel
    According to an article in the gay publication This Week in Texas, the Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board sent Ford a letter on January 8, 1987, threatening to make the Jezebel off-limits to military personnel should she not take "satisfactory measures to eliminate homosexual activity on the premises." 
    Ford describes the scene preceding her arrest on July 2, 1987
    On fighting against the charges
    Police surveillance
    Opening The Circle
    Police raid on The Paper Moon