The author's parents, Irene Hall, age 21, and Ralph Hall, age 27, in Pacific Grove, California, in 1945. Courtesy of Laura Hall My father was gay. He was born in 1918.
In my 20s, he started telling me stories about his early life. He was out in the 1930s at a time when it wasn’t common. He had dreams that most would not believe he dared to dream.
The problem with my dad telling me all of this was that he was still married to my mother. In 1939, at a party in the Hollywood Hills with gay filmmakers and musicians, he was arrested. Police officers handcuffed the men, herded them into a van, and took them to jail.
The following morning, he appeared before a judge for sentencing. Because the arresting officer couldn’t swear that he saw him touching his dance partner, he was released. Advertisement Then he was caught up in an illegal sting operation in Pasadena that targeted gay men.
They were extorted by the police for cash payments in return for conditional release. His dreams of being a schoolteacher and living with his boyfriend were destroyed. As World War II loomed, he attempted to enlist in the U.
S. Navy, but he was rejected when his record revealed that he was gay. The Army eventually accepted him, perhaps because war was imminent and able-bodied men, even gay ones, were needed.
Advertisement Before my father shipped out for war, he attended a USO dance on the San Francisco Peninsula. When he and a fellow soldier arrived, his buddy yelled over the loud music, “Hey, Ha.
