'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal Allows Gay Servicemembers To Tell Their Stories

GQ:

On a day to come very soon--September 20, 2011--a serviceman's sexuality will no longer be grounds for dismissal from the U.S. Armed forces. These are the voices explaining what it has been like to be a gay man1 in the American military over the previous seventy or so years, from World War II veterans in their late eighties to young servicemen on active duty.

Read the whole story: GQ

Comments

[Out Military]

11:49 AM on 08/26/2011

Thank you for this story. Speaking of DADT - http://OutMilitary.com has been providing a supportive environment for friending, sharing and networking between Gay active duty military, vets and supporters since December, 2010.

[Atwill]

07:54 AM on 08/26/2011

It's about time. though i am not gay, i got sick of hearing about all the sexual actitvites of my fellow service members who were straight. Why do guys in the military like to brag about thier sex experiences? Oh, right, becase most of them are lies.

[rockysparks]

02:20 PM on 08/25/2011

I have two sons who are both U.S. Army veterans. One son, Aaron, is straight. The other, Shawn, is gay. By coincidence, they share the same birthday (they are not twins, just brothers with the same birthday). If they stood side by side in uniform, I would defy you to tell which one is gay and which one is straight. I am proud of both of my sons for serving their country and proud of my country for repealing this ridiculous law that did not treat Shawn as fairly as it treated Aaron.

I am proud of all our service members --- except for the ones who continue to persist in bigotry of all kinds against the people they serve with. Bigots and bullies, whether in the military or not, are the ones who are disgrace to their uniforms and America.

[Norcal2]

02:54 PM on 08/25/2011

They are lucky to have a great dad like you.

My dad served as a sargeant in the US army, during WW 2, and saw action at Omaha Beach and the European theatre.

He told me there were gays in his unit and that they fought and died bravely in battle protecting the US.

Interesting how guys who experienced and endured all kinds of bloodshed and horror have a different opinion than the bigmouths who would claim a purple heart cutting themselves with a can opener.

[rockysparks]

03:08 PM on 08/25/2011

"... Interestin­g how guys who experience­d and endured all kinds of bloodshed and horror have a different opinion than the bigmouths who would claim a purple heart cutting themselves with a can opener.”

I meet a lot of those dudes on Huffington Post. They always sound to me like "the lady who doth protest too much."

[trumbull desi]

03:08 PM on 08/25/2011

Courage and integrity are not the bastions of straight people, they are the bastions of good people. And it sounds like you have raised two fine young men. You must be one helluva Dad.

[rockysparks]

03:14 PM on 08/25/2011

I'm one very tired dad most of the time. After seven kids (six boys, one girl --- the was the family terror) and seven grandchildren, I schedule most of my life around opportunities for a nap ...

[Venmaker1]

02:01 PM on 08/25/2011

It is amazing how we treat fellow Americans. Another solid black eye on our historical body of work towards a more perfect union.

[Gay Iberian]

01:57 PM on 08/25/2011

Most people who support soldiers and war think that it's heroic to enlist and serve because the enlistees serve to protect us. But the reality is that most of these people are young kids who don'twake up one day and say to themselves "I'm going to join the armed services to protect my fellow Americans and my family and friends." These kids either join for the Fed. benefits they can get or are street kids that join to better themselves, or probably ex gang members or drug rehabs, or perhaps just following their male family members who were in the military, or maybe they join because it makes them feel more like a man. Many of them join to get free university education. Do the American people eventually benefit from investing in these soldiers? Not really, since most of them, especially if they've served during wartime, return with physical, mental and physiological disabilities and many of them enter the Vet. health care system with chronic mental and physical problems that eventually drain the American tax payer's pocket. And all for what? So that giant, powerful corporations who actually control our government can make a profit. It's insane, it's folly!

[Jason N]

02:09 PM on 08/25/2011

Might want to check enlistment numbers. Well over 50% of the military is from the upper middle, and upper class.

[HRH]

04:01 PM on 08/25/2011

And your source is...........?

[Gay Iberian]

11:44 PM on 08/25/2011

It certainly not true from my 23 years as a nurse in the VA system.

[CraigRC]

02:54 PM on 08/25/2011

"...since most of them, especially if they've served during wartime, return with physical, mental and physiologi­cal disabiliti­es ..."

I'd be interested to see your source for this. I served in the military. I know a few people who got out with a disabilities, but it was nowhere near MOST of them.

[MartiniVirtuoso]

01:44 PM on 08/25/2011

Some heart-wrenching stories in here – both the ones about the prejudiced practices of the military and the ones about injuries in combat. My thanks to all the men and women who sacrificed for our country, straight or gay, but my respect also to the gay men and women who endured indignities of DADT and bigotry in the service, yet continued in their commitment to serve America despite it all. I don't know if I could have.

[TurnSeiki]

12:30 PM on 08/25/2011

Not interested in their stories. They always end the same way. Futility.

[Jason N]

12:40 PM on 08/25/2011

Of course you're not interested paper patriot's never are.

[TurnSeiki]

12:42 PM on 08/25/2011

The laws of nature and the world are not going to change because 5% of the population chooses to swim upstream, against the current.

[tygr49]

01:23 PM on 08/25/2011

As futile as the efforts to shove us back in the closet?

[TurnSeiki]

02:56 PM on 08/25/2011

You can be out in the open. I could care less. I only care when you're trying to push your "doctrine" onto me and my family. When we ALL know how much you dislike it when we try to push morality onto you and yours.

[Michael Lindley]

12:25 PM on 08/25/2011

I don't sympathize with these stories. I left the US BECAUSE of it's institutional hatred of gay people. I've lived in Canada, UK and Spain, where hatred of gays is marginal and not institutionalized. Now I'm in France, where hatred of gays was re-affirmed by Sarkozy and his merry band. Working where you work is voluntary. I am glad DADT, that miserable law passed by Clinton has been repealed. BUT, when you know your employer has gay-hatred policies in place, you don't offer your services to them. Work as a mercenary. Pays better, too!

[Painted Shut]

12:59 PM on 08/25/2011

Where can one go to work and not find gay hatred?

[HRH]

04:05 PM on 08/25/2011

The baths, mebbe?

[r henry]

01:26 PM on 08/25/2011

One thing I think that most soldiers would say is that their "employer" is the American people. I would hope so, anyway, because that's who they're working for. It's not McDonald's.

[Gay Iberian]

01:36 PM on 08/25/2011

You're wrong, they don't work for the American people they do work for McDonald's since I'm sure McDonald's is owned by some giant corporation that supports war policies in order to make a profit. That's what war is all about, is all for profit and not to "protect" us. Are you reading The March Of Folly yet...?

[leftyirishwoman]

12:19 PM on 08/25/2011

JobCreatorOneDay appears to be a trolling for hits on his "Reply" button. If he wanted to have a reasonable discussion he would have said something reasonable. He apparently dislikes a large slice of the American public. Don't reply to his inanities.

[Pamski]

12:59 PM on 08/25/2011

As I just commented on another thread, I think his name is hilarious - another poor wannabe rich guy.

[trumbull desi]

03:13 PM on 08/25/2011

Sometimes I wonder if people like JobCreator even believe their own musings.

[Contact1972]

12:09 PM on 08/25/2011

Thank you ALL for your service. Glad that DADT is gone. Now we should get rid of DOMA so were all treated equally under the law.

[trumbull desi]

03:13 PM on 08/25/2011

Hear hear!

[JobCreatorOneDay]

11:39 AM on 08/25/2011

Be not decieved, God is not mocked. Marriage is ONE man, ONE woman and children. The military is for those who live by a nation's morals. Wether you like it or not are a Christian country and we cannot have homosexuals pushing there agenda in rebellion to the things of God.

[Jason N]

11:42 AM on 08/25/2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..."

You can make up all the claims you like, you can't change fact.

[hackerblaster]

11:47 AM on 08/25/2011

You do realize that you have to acknowledge stoning your kids to death before you get to the hate homosexuals, right? You do truly understand that?

[kaykaythere]

04:00 PM on 08/25/2011

Actually that would mean that this "guy" actually found someone to procreate with.... very doubtful that any woman is that full of self-loathing unless of course she is a slave and locked in his basement

[Veets99]

11:31 AM on 08/25/2011

I served 4 years active, 6 reserve.
Went to the 1st gulf war. Served proudly.
But a Major suspected that I was gay. Started all kinds of trouble, when 4 or 6 or ... of us would do something, I was singled out.
At that point, half-way to retirement - I knew that I would not make it to 20+ years and just quit.
E-6, on my way - but had to quit.
I loved a lot of things about the military, and contributed a lot while I was in.
But in the back of my mind, I knew I would not be able to reach retirement, getting older and not married, etc.
What a waste.

[leftyirishwoman]

11:36 AM on 08/25/2011

Thank you for your service.

[Contact1972]

12:11 PM on 08/25/2011

Thank you for your service. I'm sorry you had to quit. It was their loss and the country's loss.

[bradenton]

11:30 AM on 08/25/2011

Since the First Continental Army, the US military has always had an untold number Gay service members. Gay Americans have been drafted into the military for eons because they chose to remain in the closet. They fought in every war defending the rights they didn't share with other Americans. Throughout these decades the military didn't collapse, everyone got along well, and no one took a straight guy's virginity. Ever thought about how many thousands of Gay soldiers and sailors died in defense of their fellow troops and their country? I'm sure no one cared whether or not they were Gay or straight when the chips were down and the bullets flew. It's time for a reality check. Americans are better than this.

[Contact1972]

12:12 PM on 08/25/2011

Since the beginning of time we have had GLBT's.

[Cacey]

11:26 AM on 08/25/2011

This is a long article and an article well worth reading. I can only hope that those posting do so before they post. I also highy recomend reading Rich Merrit's two books, one an autobiography, the other a novel.

[duckpuddle]

10:57 AM on 08/25/2011

We've come a long way.

This is not quite on topic, but is certainly apropos:

This article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/25census.html?_r=1&hp

States that the Census has counted 901,997 same-sex couples in the 2010 count. Follow my math for a second:

*2 means there are at 1,803,994 gay people in self proclaimed relationships in the US.

As of July or so the number of US citizens is 307,006,550.

Which means that %5.9 of the US population is willing to admit to the US Government that they are in same sex relationships (i.e. Gay)

If we add in the single gay people, and couples who do not admit they are gay, and priests (just kidding), then the 10% number is very realistic.

This number alone blows the "only 1-4% of the population is gay" statistic out of the water.

Finally my federal tax dollars are helping to recognize my existence.

[leftyirishwoman]

11:33 AM on 08/25/2011

Everyone's blood is red and everyone's tax money is green. LGBT people are people, and deserve recognition for their contributions to society.

[Contact1972]

12:14 PM on 08/25/2011

Thank you!

[Pamski]

01:01 PM on 08/25/2011

Gotta fanya, leftirishwoman!

[Contact1972]

12:13 PM on 08/25/2011

Well said. I would fan you again if I could.