Pat Bond - Nominee

Patricia Childers spent her youth in Chicago and as a teen moved to Iowa with her family, eventually attending a Catholic women's college which she described as "a finishing school where they finished me." She already knew she was a lesbian when she joined the Women’s Army Corp in 1945 as a nurse attending to soldiers returning from the South Pacific. In 1947 she was serving in occupied Japan when 500 women were dishonorably discharged from the Army on the charge of homosexuality. Childers had married Paul Bond (a gay man) prior to leaving for Tokyo, but could not escape the Army’s witch hunt – though having a marriage license at least resulted in hers being an honorable discharge. Moving to San Francisco, Bond earned a BA and an MA in Theater from San Francisco State College. She did some stage work in the area, became involved in the evolving lesbian community, and even opened the lesbian club Bond Street. Her career was launched with her appearance in the 1978 gay documentary ‘Word is Out,’ stealing the film with a comic and poignant rendering of her time in the Army. In the coming years Bond toured the country in four one-woman shows such as the PBS televised production ‘Gerty Gerty Gerty Stein is Back Back Back,’ as a humorous Gertrude Stein talking about her life. Her other popular stage shows included ‘Conversations with Pat Bond,’ about her youth; ‘Murder in the WAC,’ on the Army’s purge of lesbians; and ‘Lorena Hickock and Eleanor Roosevelt: A Love Story’ as the butch journalist in love with the First Lady. Her popularity led to roles in films and such TV shows as ‘Designing Women’ and ‘Emerald City.’ In addition she was interviewed for Coming Out Under Fire, Allan Berube’s book about gays in the military, and its companion documentary. Bond died of emphysema on Christmas Eve 1990 in Marin County, CA. while friends sang carols around her bed. She was 65.