Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325 (CreateSpace-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1500563323
CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4910282
Amazon print: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500563323/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MZG0VHY/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

Together from 1975 to 1997: 22 years.
Grace Bukowski & Nell “Johnnie” Phelps (1922 - December 30, 1997)


Nell "Johnnie" Phelps (April 4, 1922 - December 30, 1997) was a lesbian member of the Women's Army Corps who managed to convince General Dwight D. Eisenhower not to eject lesbian members of the WAC as he had planned.

Early life

Johnnie Phelps was born in North Carolina<ref name="Sears">cite book|last1=Sears|first1=James Thomas|title=Rebels, Rubyfruit, and Rhinestones: Queering Space in the Stonewall South|date=2001|publisher=Rutgers University Press|page=342|url=https://books.google.it/books?id=wqt4krhmQrwC&pg=PA342|accessdate=30 December 2017</ref> as Nell Louise Phelps on April 4, 1922, and was raised with an adoptive family.<ref name="Hampf">cite book|last1=Hampf|first1=Michaela|title=Release a Man for Combat: The Women's Army Corps During World War II|date=2010|publisher=Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar|page=240|url=https://books.google.it/books?id=dPGF3rqJlyEC&pg=PA240|accessdate=30 December 2017</ref><ref name="Papers">cite web|title=Finding aid of the Johnnie Phelps Papers and Memorabilia|url=http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/calaong/2008-068_phelps.pdf|website=ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives|accessdate=30 December 2017</ref>

Military Career

Johnnie Phelps joined the first Women's Army Corps battalion during World War II and she arrived to the rank of Sergeant.<ref name="Faderman">cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America|date=2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=118|url=https://books.google.it/books?id=tpBdCl-I_oUC&pg=PA118|accessdate=30 December 2017</ref> She first served in the South Pacific working as a medic and later she reenlisted and was sent to Germany as part of the Post-WWII Occupation forces Eisenhower. Wounded in action in Philippines, she received the Purple Heart and was honorably discharged in 1945.<ref name="Shilts" /><ref name="Stewart" /><ref name="Sears" /><ref name="Papers" />

She re-enlisted in 1946 and was assigned to head the motor pool for General Eisenhower.<ref name="Sears" /><ref name="Papers" /> As reported in an interview with BunnyMacCulloch in 1982,<ref name="Faderman" /> in 1947 she was told by General Eisenhower, "It's come to my attention that there are lesbians in the WACs, we need to ferret them out...." Phelps replied, "If the General pleases, sir, I'll be happy to do that, but the first name on the list will be mine." Eisenhower's secretary added, "If the General pleases, sir, my name will be first and hers will be second." Phelps then told Eisenhower, "Sir, you're right, there are lesbians in the WACs – and if you want to replace all the file clerks, section commanders, drivers, every woman in the WAC detachment, I will be happy to make that list. But you must know, sir, that they are the most decorated group – there have been no illegal pregnancies, no AWOLs, no charges of misconduct." Eisenhower dropped the idea.<ref name="Gallo2006">cite book|author=Marcia M. Gallo|title=Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BZJx5dLs_lkC&pg=PA67|year=2006|publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers|isbn=978-1-58005-252-8|pages=67–</ref><ref name="Shilts">cite book|last1=Shilts|first1=Randy|title=Conduct Unbecoming: Gays & Lesbians in the U.S. Military|date=2014|publisher=Open Road Media|url=https://books.google.it/books?id=rbcYBQAAQBAJ&dq=Conduct+Unbecoming+Randy+Shilts&hl=it&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqjPDG2LHYAhWGtxQKHXcjDIoQ6AEIKDAA|accessdate=30 December 2017</ref><ref name="Hampf" /><ref name="Stewart">cite book|last1=Stewart|first1=Chuck|title=Proud Heritage: People, Issues, and Documents of the LGBT Experience [3 volumes]: People, Issues, and Documents of the LGBT Experience|date=2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=392|url=https://books.google.it/books?id=8r2aBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA392|accessdate=30 December 2017</ref><ref name="Sears" /><ref name="Kuhn">cite book|last1=Kuhn|first1=Betsy|title=Gay Power!: The Stonewall Riots and the Gay Rights Movement, 1969|date=2011|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|page=28|url=https://books.google.it/books?id=nRJp2Bs_tlUC&pg=PA28|accessdate=30 December 2017</ref><ref name="Kaiser">cite book|last1=Kaiser|first1=Charles|title=The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America|date=2007|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|page=56|url=https://books.google.it/books?id=6jlcmZrSXpEC&pg=PT56|accessdate=30 December 2017</ref> Later Phelps said "There were almost nine hundred women in the battalion. I could honestly say that 95 percent of them were lesbians".<ref name="Hampf" /> She was honorably discharged a second time.<ref name="Papers" />

Later Career

Johnnie Phelps left the army to establish her own printing business, which she ran for years.<ref name="Papers" /><ref name="Sears" />

Phelps joined the National Organization for Women and founded the San Gabriel Valley - Whittier chapter in 1979. She chaired the California Lesbian Task Force (a branch of California NOW), and spearheaded protests on behalf of the Norton Sound Eight - eight female crew members aboard the USS Norton Sound who were charged with "homosexual misconduct." In addition, she joined the Southern California Women for Understanding organization and served on the Los Angeles County Veterans' Advisory Commission. A recovering alcoholic, she also served as president of the Alcoholism Center for Women.<ref name="Sears" /><ref name="Papers" />

She was appointed by Gloria Molina to the Los Angeles Commission on Veterans' Affairs and resigned in 1996 due to severe health problems.

She appeared in the ''Before Stonewall'' documentary and she was interviewed for books like ''My Country, My Right to Serve'' by Mary Ann Humphrey,<ref name="Humphrey">cite book|last1=Humphrey|first1=Mary Ann|title=My Country, My Right to Serve: Experiences of Gay Men and Women in the Military, World War II to the Present|date=1990|publisher=HarperPerennial|url=https://books.google.it/books?id=h6G0aQjxdxgC|accessdate=30 December 2017</ref> and ''Conduct Unbecoming'' by Randy Shilts.<ref name="Hampf" />

She appeared in the ''Trailblazers: Unsung Military Heroines of WWII'' documentary by Mindy Pomper, shown ad infinitum at the Women's Memorial in Washington D.C.

Personal life

Phelps married a Navy man, but the marriage was unhappy and to escape it she joined the military in 1943.<ref name="Papers" />

Johnnie Phelps first female lover died when their boat was bombed as they landed on Leyte, Philippines, in 1944.<ref name="Stewart" />

Living in Southern California, Phelps became politically active in the 1970s. It was around this time that she met her last partner, Grace Bukowski, who survived her.<ref name="Papers" /> Phelps died on December 30, 1997, at the Veterans Home in Barstow, and her ashes were buried with full honor in the U.S. Veterans Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles.<ref name="Stewart" /><ref name="Papers" />

Legacy

In 1993 Veterans for Human Rights organized the annual "Sgt. Johnnie Phelps Annual Awards Banquet" in Portland, Oregon.<ref name="Hampf" />

References

reflist

authority control
DEFAULTSORT:Phelps, Johnnie

Category/1922 births
Category/1997 deaths
Category/LGBT people from North Carolina
Category/American LGBT military personnel
Category/American women in World War II