It Was Illegal For Him To Join The U.S. Marine Corps. He Did It Anyway.
The real man behind the Netflix hit series Boots says, "You shouldn't have to fight to fight for your country."
Greg Cope White Greg Cope White had to tell a big lie in order to follow his best friend into the United States Marines. He'd never run a mile, he wasn't a military buff, and he didn't hope to fight in a war. But none of those were the lies he told during his intake interrogation. Greg's secret? He was gay.
This was before the Don't Ask, Don't Tell era of the 1990s, when people could be gay in the military as long as nobody knew. This was when "homosexual acts" were literal crimes and homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder. Being gay in the military was literally illegal.
Greg joined the Marines knowing he was gay, hoping it would give him something to do instead of taking random junior college classes or finding an unfulfilling minimum wage job. And, boy, did it!
It was illegal for Greg to join the U.S. Marine Corps. He did it anyway.
Being gay in this era was far from easy. Being gay in the military during this era was literally banned.
As the encyclopedic website History explains, "The ban [on LGBTQ+ service members] withstood challenges from the growing gay rights movement in the 1970s, including a high-profile lawsuit filed by Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, who was discharged from the U.S. Air Force after admitting he was gay in 1975."
This story could turn dark. Instead, it's the hopeful true story behind Netflix's hit show, 'Boots'.
As Greg Cope White told Andrea Miller during an episode of Getting Open, his memoir The Pink Marine, and eventual Netflix series 'Boots', is a story of hope, resilience and transformation. But don't be mistaken: he didn't transform into what the Marines wanted him to be.
Instead, he served his country proudly and was honorably discharged. This helped Greg transform into the man he was meant to be: a young, out gay man who moved to New York City to live his dreams. His dreams kept growing with every decade.
Men's friendships matter and 'Boots' shows exactly how much.
Greg Cope White
The story the Greg shares on Getting Open isn't just one gay kid's coming-of-age story. It's so much more: more than just a military story, more than just a memoir of what it was like to be gay when you, as a human being, were considered illegal. It's a story of an enduring friendship and how men's friendships (even when one is gay and one is straight!) can sustain them — and even save their lives.
As Greg tells Miller, "Dale saw no reason not to befriend the skinny gay kid. We're still best friends 50-something years later. We both live here in Southern California and we talk or see each other every single day."
As Greg shared along with the photo, above, on Instagram:
"On the set of Boots looking at our past selves looking at their future selves unless they wear sunscreen. Never in a million years did I think, as a TV writer, that I’d be writing my own story into a show — and definitely not that the universe would send us younger, cuter upgrades.
This all started as our life, then a book, and now it’s on its feet with our showrunners & all these incredible humans bringing it to the screen."
A dream come true, and all because of a best friendship that endures decades.
Joanna Schroeder is a writer, editor, and media critic whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and more. She is co-author of the best-selling book Talk To Your Boys: 16 Conversations to Help Tweens and Teens Grow into Confident, Caring Young Men. She publishes weekly on Substack.
