Today I would like to honor and pay tribute to Leonard Matlovich. Matlovich, who was decorated with both a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, was discharged from the Air Force after coming out of the closet; it was a dishonorable discharge. Matlovich was a race relations instructor and was the first openly gay person to be on the cover of Time Magazine, 1975. After a very protracted battle in the court system, Matlovich won an honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1980. Matlovitch died in 1988. The inscription on his tombstone reads: “When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men, and a discharge for loving one.”