Cuando coinciden la razón más honorable y la menos
Hearing your whole life that your dad got killed in war before you could know him is pretty good incentive for self-preservation. As Ray asserts, avoiding the draft was a moot point in his case because he was classified 4-A, as the sole surviving son of a servicemember killed in action. As long as war was not officially declared, Ray was safe. Further, the draft was implemented for men ages 18 to 26, and he was at University of Illinois until 1973, the year he turned 28. That would have allowed for a student deferment even if war had been declared. As I said earlier, Ray moved to Canada in the midst of the Vietnam War (1973) and has remained, even after all the drama about the U.S. draft was resolved. This is well-documented and is not a misrepresentation. I’ll discuss more details on all this when I profile Zucker one of these days.
What Ray fails to address is the real misrepresentation here, the elephant in the room, and my original point: not the 4-A classification, but the 4-F classification. 4-F was the designation used to declare gay men “unfit” for military service (Dode 2004). In other words, 4-A was pretty much the best reason to be exempt; 4-F was pretty much the worst reason to be exempt. While Ray was never classified 4-F because of his superseding exemption, had he been drafted, there was a very real possibility that he would have been rejected outright or dishonorably discharged for being gay, had he made it through the screening process. As of late 2009, the US military still has this as official policy. His father’s military service stands as the height of honor and the ultimate sacrifice, yet Ray might have been denied outright as “unfit,” or if he got in, he might have been discharged at the hands of military psychiatrists, the ultimate dishonor.
The best way to understand Ray Blanchard as a human is to consider the mindset of gay priests. Good Catholic boys who thought girls were icky often saw the priesthood as the Catholic version of 4-A instead of the Catholic version of 4-F. Priesthood is the most honorable reason not to have a family. Being a sodomite was the most “unfit” reason.
– Un perfil viperino de Ray Blanchard del Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), donde según Boing Boing se dedican a etiquetar todo lo que no es “normal” en el sexo y preferencias sexuales como “parafilia”.

