"even though I was having one right there,"
"Hi, I'm a marine, and I wanted to say hello,"
"Marines would never recruit in that outfit. We always put out a crisp image, with royal-blue trousers and red stripes."
"We also wear impossibly shined black shoes. It's all very gay."
Greg Cope White lied about having homosexual thoughts during a Marine Corps interview in 1979 in order to enlist. He and his straight best friend arrived at Parris Island and encountered trainers who used slurs such as "faggots" and "retards." He served six years and left the Corps as a sergeant. After leaving the military he moved to Manhattan and then to Hollywood, pursued work in television, and received mentorship from Norman Lear. He recalled recruitment imagery and uniform details, noting their polished appearance and ironic observations about how that image read as "very gay."
Read at The New Yorker
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