Helen Grace James (born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

) is a physical therapist and U.S. military veteran. She served in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

, where she achieved the rank of Airman Second Class. She was discharged from the military as "undesirable" during the

Lavender Scare The "lavender scare" was a moral panic about homosexual people in the United States government which led to their mass dismissal from government service during the mid-20th century. It contributed to and paralleled the anti-communist campaign wh ...

campaign to remove lesbian and gay people from government employment in links with the anti-communist campaign. In 1960, she was able to upgrade her status from "undesirable" to "General Discharge under Honorable Conditions". In 2018, she successfully sued the U.S. Air Force to upgrade her discharge to "honorable,” which allowed her to receive full veteran benefits that were previously unavailable to her.

Early life

Helen Grace James was born on the 30th January, 1928, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. James was heavily inspired by her

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

veteran father, which ultimately led to her joining the

at age 25 after concurrently enlisting in the Air Force Reserves. James also received a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Education at East Stroudsburg State College and taught for several years before enlisting.

Life and career

Helen G. James enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1952. She started as a radio operator and was later promoted to crew chief. Eventually she achieved the rank of Airman Second Class. In 1955, the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) started following and spying on her work and personal life during the

campaign to remove lesbian and gay people from government employment as communism began to increase and become an immediate risk in the United States. They placed James under arrest and began interrogation which lasted hours, threatening to disclose her sexuality to her relations and friends if she did not sign discharge papers from the Air Force. James received "undesirable" discharge from the US Air Force on the 3rd March, 1955. James was also stripped of her commission in the Air Force Reserves in August 1955, with another "undesirable" discharge. After that, she moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where she got an advanced degree in physical therapy from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. She has been a physical therapist ever since. From 1972 she was a member of the faculty at California State University, Fresno, until she went into private practice in 1989. On the 8th April, 1960, she applied to upgrade her status from "undesirable" to "General Discharge under Honorable Conditions." However, the National Personal Records Center notified James that her military records were unable to be retrieved. This change was later made but the newfound status did not allow her to have access to basic services other veterans could receive, such as healthcare or banking benefits from the USAA. In 2018 she successfully sued the US Air Force to change her status to “honorable”, making her eligible for all veterans benefits, including access to healthcare from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and burial in a national cemetery. In January 2018, she decided to donate her album of photographs to the Smithsonian, to be featured in the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Helen G. Living people Women in the United States Air Force LGBT military personnel LGBT people from Pennsylvania Military personnel from Pennsylvania American physiotherapists Stanford University alumni California State University, Fresno faculty American LGBT rights activists 1928 births