The Sexes: The Sergeant v. the Air Force

When T/Sgt. Leonard Matlovich handed his coming-out letter to his superior officer, a black captain at Langley Air Force Base, Va., the officer said: "What the hell does this mean?" Replied Matlovich: "It means Brown v. the Board of Education."

Matlovich, now 32, was deliberately provoking a discharge from the Air Force in order to challenge the military's long-standing ban on homosexuals (TIME, June 9). Indeed, his lawyers hope the case will reach the Supreme Court and produce a landmark decision on homosexual rights comparable to the court's historic school integration decision of...

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