First I heard about this...interesting yet sad story.

http://www.back2stonewall.com/...dent-fords-life.html



On September 22, 1975 President Gerald Ford was in San Francisco to deliver a luncheon speech to a foreign affairs group at the St. Francis Hotel. Outside, Oliver Sipple, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, was in the crowd waiting for Ford to exit the building. Standing next to Sipple was Sara Jane Moore. Earlier that day, Moore called federal authorities threatening to “test” Ford’s security. The day before, San Francisco police picked her up on a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon, but they released her after federal authorities stepped in and said they would handle the matter. The Secret Service interviewed her that night, but let her go.

That day as President Ford left the hotel, Sara Jane Moore pulled a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver from her purse, pointed it at the President, and fired a shot. As she fired, Sipple reached out and grabbed her arm. Moore’s shot missed Ford by just five feet.

Sipple had been a fixture in San Francisco’s gay community for several years had saved President Gerald Ford’s life.

“All I did was react,” he said. “I’m glad I was there. If it’s true I saved the President’s life, then I’m damn happy about it. But I honestly feel that if I hadn’t reached out for that arm, somebody else would have.”

Sipple had worked on Milk’s first unsuccessful attempt at winning a seat on the city’s Board of Supervisors. He was out to his friends, but closeted to his family in Detroit. . When reporters asked about his sexuality, Sipple replied with a standard non-answer: “I don’t think I have to answer that question. If I were homosexual or not, it doesn’t make me less of a man than I am.”

But Sipple was well known in the gay community and it was an open secret.

Sipple was never contacted directly by President Ford the man whose life he saved, and Harvey Milk was convinced that it was because Sipple was gay. (The White House mailed a letter of appreciation four days after the assassination attempt.) But Sipple told friends that he wasn’t interested in the attention he “just wanted a little peace and quiet.” But that was not to be. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Herb Caen broke the story of Sipple being “gay” and it was soon picked up by wire services. Sipple’s Baptist mother publicly disowned him, and he soon found himself besieged by reporters. Sipple sued The Chronicle, Caen, and several other newspapers for invasion of privacy, but lost. The courts ruled that he had become a public figure on the day of the assassination attempt, and that his sexual orientation was part of the story.

Sipple, who was on psychological disability because of wounds suffered in Vietnam, declined physically in the years following the assassination attempt. He drank heavily, and told all who would listen that he wished he never grabbed Moore’s gun.

Oliver Sipple died, alone, of pneumonia in his Tenderloin District apartment in 1989.

. President Ford and his wife sent a letter of sympathy to his family and friends.

Oliver Sipple was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery south of San Francisco.

What a shame he regretted his reflex. Thank you, patriot! You were ever faithful.

As written, I feel bad for the man.

However, I’ve read many stories written to elicit that very response and they leave out a lot of facts making the main character much less heroic. Maybe I’m just jaded.

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that his sexual orientation was part of the story.

Why?

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Originally posted by konata88:

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that his sexual orientation was part of the story.

Why?

Because it basically destroyed his life afterwards.

His family disowned him. The police investigated him for perversion and sex crimes.

Ford never thanked him while he was alive.

Interesting. I was part of an Army group of technical people assigned to work with the Secret Service during that period. I was part of the EOD group that cleared where he went. My job that day was to be in the escort detail in case of problems. I along with my partner were assigned to ride in the lead car, a Highway Patrol cruiser. When the shot rang out I was about ten feet in front of the President. Of course everything went into SHTF mode and we piled into our vehicles and made a mad dash for the airport. Normal convoy procedure was our car first, a sweeper car with SS Agents next, the Presidential Limousine and then another security car with SS Agents and then backup security in various cars followed by an ambulance with medical personnel. You haven't lived until you negotiate the streets of San Francisco at 80-90 MPH. We hit the freeway and the cruiser speedometer was buried past the 120 MPH mark as we sped along. About a mile into the freeway the radio call sign for the Limousine came over the radio asking us if we could speed it up. I looked behind and the Limousine had passed the sweeper car and was right on our back bumper. The Patrolman floored the car and we were going as fast as we could and all the way to the airport they kept trying to get us to go faster. When we arrived at the airport we had outrun the rest of the security detail and had to wait till they got there to unload the President. Man that Limo could run.

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Originally posted by konata88:

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that his sexual orientation was part of the story.

Why?

Because it sold papers which in turns leads to increased ad revenue. That’s more than enough reason for the media to throw anyone under a bus regardless of whether they like them or not.

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Originally posted by P210:

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Originally posted by konata88:

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that his sexual orientation was part of the story.

Why?

Because it sold papers which in turns leads to increased ad revenue. That’s more than enough reason for the media to throw anyone under a bus regardless of whether they like them or not.

Because it was 1975, that's why. Things were different back then. San Francisco's gay community was pretty quiet, still in the closet for the most part, while the city's image was being established by the "Dirty Harry" series and "Bullitt." It was known for jazz, rock and roll, and fine seafood, hippies and going braless. Harvey Milk wasn't elected to the City Council for another two years.

A male cousin of mine was teaching at Stanford University, south of San Francisco, about that time. His father and mother, my uncle and aunt, drove out to visit him, since they hadn't heard from him for a couple years, and found him living "in the closet" with a boyfriend. They disowned him on the spot, and told the rest of the family why they did it. My father, his brothers, all understood this and agreed. My generation, my cousin's generation, thought the whole thing was kind of funny and just didn't really care who he screwed.

That's what 1975 was like. Maybe things are better now, maybe they aren't, but that's why Sipple was excoriated.

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Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Oliver Sipple died, alone, of pneumonia AIDS in his Tenderloin District apartment in 1989.

Fixed it for you.

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Originally posted by newtoSig765:

Because it was 1975, that's why. Things were different back then. San Francisco's gay community was pretty quiet, still in the closet for the most part, while the city's image was being established by the "Dirty Harry" series and "Bullitt." It was known for jazz, rock and roll, and fine seafood, hippies and going braless. Harvey Milk wasn't elected to the City Council for another two years.

A male cousin of mine was teaching at Stanford University, south of San Francisco, about that time. His father and mother, my uncle and aunt, drove out to visit him, since they hadn't heard from him for a couple years, and found him living "in the closet" with a boyfriend. They disowned him on the spot, and told the rest of the family why they did it. My father, his brothers, all understood this and agreed. My generation, my cousin's generation, thought the whole thing was kind of funny and just didn't really care who he screwed.

That's what 1975 was like. Maybe things are better now, maybe they aren't, but that's why Sipple was excoriated.

I lived in San Francisco in 1975, been there since 1972. Gay people were openly gay. Castro District was openly gay. The street west of Van Ness was good for cruising gays and so were spots in downtown and tenderloin. It may be that this was unknown outside the Bay Area but it wasn't a secret in the Bay Area at the time.

Whatever may or may not have happened besides the fact that he moved the point of aim away from the President, it was a sad thing that happened to him.

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Originally posted by tatortodd:
As written, I feel bad for the man.

However, I’ve read many stories written to elicit that very response and they leave out a lot of facts making the main character much less heroic. Maybe I’m just jaded.

Almost certainly this is the case.

ESPECIALLY when the banner of the website displaying (not publishing) the story states:

“We’re Here, We’re Queer, F@#king Deal With It.”

Dollars to doughnuts, the person posting this story here obtained this story directly or indirectly from facebook.

About the author:

Will Kohler is a noted LGBT historian, journalist and owner of Back2Stonewall.com. A longtime gay activist, Will fought on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic with ACT-UP and continues fighting today for LGBT acceptance and full equality. Will’s work has been referenced in notable media venues as MSNBC and BBC News, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Hollywood Reporter, and Raw Story

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Originally posted by Rey HRH:
...It may be that this was unknown outside the Bay Area but it wasn't a secret in the Bay Area at the time...

You're right about that, I knew about the Castro District then, even though it was before I spent time in SF, but it was relatively unknown outside.

What was acceptable in SF would get one arrested in any other major city in America and most of the world in 1975. That's the point of my post -- attitudes change as time passes, and a failure to understand and accept this can lead to catastrophic results. It's effectively Revisionist History. George Santayana was right: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

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Originally posted by bubbatime:

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Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Oliver Sipple died, alone, of pneumonia AIDS in his Tenderloin District apartment in 1989.

Fixed it for you.

Thanks for your contribution! You're the man.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RAMIUS,

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Originally posted by bcereuss:

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Originally posted by tatortodd:
As written, I feel bad for the man.

However, I’ve read many stories written to elicit that very response and they leave out a lot of facts making the main character much less heroic. Maybe I’m just jaded.

Almost certainly this is the case.

ESPECIALLY when the banner of the website displaying (not publishing) the story states:

“We’re Here, We’re Queer, F@#king Deal With It.”

Dollars to doughnuts, the person posting this story here obtained this story directly or indirectly from facebook.

About the author:

Will Kohler is a noted LGBT historian, journalist and owner of Back2Stonewall.com. A longtime gay activist, Will fought on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic with ACT-UP and continues fighting today for LGBT acceptance and full equality. Will’s work has been referenced in notable media venues as MSNBC and BBC News, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Hollywood Reporter, and Raw Story

I was merely posting something I found interesting and would like to share with the forum.

Next time I will take more time and consider the source, as I rightly should, so I don't offend you with website content or the author's sexuality agenda.

In regards to the story, you're free to use google and find other websites that discuss the story and are more in line with your thinking.

Once again, I learned of this yesterday and thought it was interesting, so I shared.

And no, the OP did not get it from facebook, but the OP wonders why that matters.