[uplifting brass music]
- Joseph Patton: My dad told me
going in the service would help me be a man,
but I chose the Navy because I liked the uniforms. [laughs]
They were tight and cute with bell bottoms.
Lord have mercy!
I was exploring my sexuality, but you could not be gay
in the service at that time.
There was a group of us that hung out together.
We drank together, we played cards, we became friends.
But when these two guys told the commanders they were lovers,
everybody that was close friends with those guys was arrested,
and I was kicked out of the service
for being friends with a homosexual.
They gave me an undesirable discharge.
That was the worst time in my life.
To be in the service for my country
is the greatest thing I thought I did.
I was a perfect sailor.
I did my job very well.
So that whole period is almost like a dream.
A lot of it, I didn't want to think about
because it hurt so much and I was so ashamed.
But you know, I can't live in the past.
Love has no limits in my life.
And love surprises me all the time.
I'm 81 years old, but sometimes I get up and dance.
I shake my ass with life.
Yes! [laughs]
And I'm blessed that I can feel like that.
["Elegiac" by Bryan Copeland"]