About AMVETS

I was born and raised in Florida. I was the student body president of Hernando High School in Brooksville, Florida. My nickname is Gator.

 

I served four years in the Marine Corps and two years in the Naval Air Reserve. I reached the rank of E-6. I received a Letter of Commendation from the Commanding Officer of the 6th Naval Flet. I also received the Navy Achievement Medal.

 

After my military service I became a civilian employee at the Point Mugu Navy Base in Ventura County, Southern California. I had  a secret clearance. I worked as a GS-11 in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) program office.

 

I came out of the closet to help President-Elect Bill Clinton lift the ban on gays in the military. The Navy retaliated against me and I was assaulted by Marines on the base. The Navy worked to fire me.

 

From 1993-94 the  ACLU represented me in a historic discrimination suit against the Department of the Navy. Our case prompted the Navy Secretary to add sexual orientation protection for over 252,000 civilian employees. Navy Secretary John Dalton added this protection more than four years before the other branches of the  military. Secretary Dalton presented me with an award.  

 

The Navy attempted to strip me of my secret clearance and failed. I was the last gay federal employee to have his access to classified information challenged by the feral government. I retired on AIDS disability in 1995.

 

I was introduced on stage before one million people and C-SPAN TV at the 1993 March on Washington for LGBTQ civil rights. I am featured in the TV documentary “After Stonewall.” I have been features in national magazines and newspapers.

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I presented the first memorial wreath for LGBTQ war dead at the Memorial Day 1993 ceremony at Los Angeles National Cemetery. I presented the first memorial wreath for veterans who died of AIDS at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

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In 1995 I was grand marshal of the Palm Springs Pride Parade. In 1996 I was marshal in Washington DC, Jacksonville Florida and Norfolk Virginia. I was also marshal in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, California.

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I became legally blind due to AIDS and an HMO Horror Story in 1998. In 1998 I filed the first AIDS medical malpractice trial. I lost the jury trial in the Ventura County Superior Court.

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AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) and POZ Magazine published two feature stories about my historic litigation.

 

In 1998 I moved to Rancho Mirage. In 1999 I led the effort for approver of LGBTQ veterans to march in the Palm Springs Veterans Day Parade. In 2001 I led the effort to dedicate America’s first LGBTQ Veterans Memorial in Cathedral City. In 2018 this became a state memorial. Six American Presidents and four California Governors have sent me special letters honoring this historic memorial.

 

In 2016 my husband Guillermo and I held the first same-sex marriage in immigration detention history. Three times my husband and I have been featured on the front page of the Desert Sun discussing immigration policy. Our marriage was an international news story.

 

 I am the Founder and Commander of American Veterans (AMVETS) Post 66 in Palm Springs that is named in memory of a fallen gay soldier who was killed in World War II. Over twenty years ago, I started the free transportation for veterans traveling between the desert and the VA Hospital at Loma Linda, California. We have transported over 15,000 veterans.

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 I am the Founder and President of Veterans For Peace and we have dedicated several Peace Poles in our valley. I was the first gay person appointed to the Riverside County Veterans Advisory Committee. Since 2000 I have served on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs HIV Community Advisory Board.

 

 I have seen every President since Richard Nixon. I was vice president of California Young Democrats.  I am the founding chair of the California Democratic Party Veterans Caucus. I was the co-chair of the “Salute to Veterans at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

 

Tom is  a convert to the Roman Catholic Church. He was blessed by late Pope John Paul II in 1978. He has seen the Holy Shroud of Turin, Italy and Juan Diego’s tilma in Mexico City.  He has visited many sites of Marian apparitions around the world.

Tom has seen the graves of Saint Peter, Saint Mark and Saint Anthony of Padua. Tom has seen the glove of Saint Padre Pio and touched the relic of the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ. Tom has seen a Eucharistic miracle in Portugal. Tom was a chaplain’s assistant at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Tom is  a Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus. He shares his testimony often to groups.

 

Since I became legally blind, I have published three books. My first book about my historic ACLU case against the Navy is being published by Austin-Macauley Book Publishers in New York City. It is scheduled to be in bookstores on October 10, 2025.

 

Tom believes the termination of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI): polices in the federal government are a mistake. Tom believes we are going backwards and that anti-gay harassment that he faced and overcame may resume in the future. Tom believes we are facing a cross road where democracy is under attack Tom created coffee mugs that say “Bend the knee to God and not Trump.”  

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Tom Swann Hernandez

(760) 324-‘5670

tomswannhernandez@earthlink.net

 

My efforts are dedicated to the cause of freedom for those who come after me.
You must never give up hope or give in to discrimination