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Source (note)
Berg, Vernon E., III
Biography (note)
Copy Berg was an artist and gay rights activist noted for his legal challenge of a United States Navy discharge issued because of his sexual orientation.
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Original postage stamps contained in Box 158 unavailable for research use for preservation reasons, as of February 2001.
Biography
Copy Berg was an artist and gay rights activist noted for his legal challenge of a United States Navy discharge issued because of his sexual orientation.
Copy Berg was born Vernon E. Berg, III on July 10, 1951. He attended the United States Naval Academy from 1970-1974 and then served with the U. S. Navy Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. In 1975 the Navy sought to release him by General Discharge on grounds of homosexuality. Berg fought a highly publicized legal battle against the Navy but lost the case and was released in 1976. He settled in New York where he studied at Pratt Institute and launched a career as an artist. Berg collaborated with E. Lawrence Gibson to produce Get Off My Ship, an illustrated account of his Navy discharge case published in 1978. He worked for several years as an assistant to photorealist painter Charles Bell. In 1986 Berg was diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). His subsequent artwork explored the social response to the AIDS epidemic, sexual politics and sadomasochism. Copy Berg died of an AIDS-related illness in New York City on January 27, 1999.
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