John Gay - Recipient

Contents:

• NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW
• ACCINTAL 'I LOVE YOU' DERAILED GAY NAVY SEAL'S CAREER
• NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL REBUILDG HIS LIFE BIBLE BELT
• PRI: THE STORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL – A BOOK REVIEW
• MEET BRETT JON, A GAY NAVY SEAL
• EXCLIVE: MY NAME IS BRETT JON, I AM A NAVY SEAL, AND I AM GAY
• KNIV SAVE LIV: NAVY SEAL JOHN GAY
• FORMER SEAL ALLEG ANTI-GAY HARASSMENT CIA
• EX-NAVY SEAL ALLEG ANTI-GAY BULLYG BY CIA WORKERS
• GAY CIA CONTRACTOR CLAIMS DANGERO HARASSMENT WAR ZONE
• NAVY'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW
• NAVY'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

The two men are parents to Ethan, a prec 13-year-old known the flat, clay and pe untry as the only kid school wh two gay first openly gay SEAL has built a new life here at age 41 wh a fay that has replaced the two fai he lost — the one that raised him and the one he built wh fellow SEALs. Both his parents and the Navy banished him bee he’s this steamy night, the two gay parents and their straight son are sweatg and shovg as they fight to w a roughhoe driveway basketball game lled Cheater Ball.

They are close, and necsarily so, sce a gay marriage — not to mentn gay parentg — is viewed wh ep spicn and outright hostily perhaps the most anti-gay state the Jon and Whe attend Ethan’s baseball gam, they say, ach and other parents barely speak to them. When he was high school, his mother, a vout Christian, overheard his phone nversatn wh a gay next day, Jon says, his parents nonted him.

He asked his son, “Brett, are you a homosexual? “My mom told me homosexuals go straight to hell, ” Jon says. He had served for six years and two ployments on mandg, secretive missns when his homosexualy was was the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era.

ACCINTAL 'I LOVE YOU' DERAILED GAY NAVY SEAL'S CAREER

He was terrogated by a ary lawyer who mand he nfs to beg gay. They gossiped about him, ridiculg gays and sayg a homosexual SEAL would stroy un Navy dropped s vtigatn after Jon enlisted a natnal group that advot for gays the ary, and after members of Congrs tervened.

Last December, they drove to Indiana to be married by a urt, 37, had lived his own secret, tormented life growg up Athens, where gays were ridiculed and monized. His father cracked jok about homos and day Whe cid to e out, he says, “I told my dad and he stood up and I was bracg for a punch.

NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL REBUILDG HIS LIFE BIBLE BELT

” His father apologized for all his gay slurs over the and his brother, Matt, helped nvce Jon to self-publish a memoir, “Pri: The Story of the First Openly Gay Navy SEAL, ” released October. ”Jon and Whe want to sell the hoe and move Ethan to a public school nearby Huntsville, which they ll “a progrsive island” a state so hostile to gay marriage that s chief Supreme Court jtice orred unti to disobey a feral urt orr Febary permtg gay fay feels fortable Huntsville, home to scientists and engeers om across the untry who work fense and aerospace. “We have the only tornado shelter on the street, ” Whe, they don’t expect a gay pri para Toney anytime soon.

“Of urse, every day I take a drive is a gay pri para, ’’ Whe clients of their secury pany don’t particularly re that ’s owned and managed by two gay men, Whe says.

PRI: THE STORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL – A BOOK REVIEW

The two are a former SEAL and former p, after all, and Jon served for years as a secury ntractor Afghanistan and Iraq after leavg the, Jon is active the Trevor Project, which operat 24-hour suici hotl for troubled lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr young people. He gets several msag a week om young gays, some the ary, who are battlg prsn and discrimatn. A young, gay ary officer recently wrote him om Sgapore, where homosexualy is illegal.

They never discs Christiany or “the gay thg, ” Jon Jon, who liv At, Texas, says she lov and admir her son for his honty and urage. This was 2002, nearly a before the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and a time when servg openly any service as homosexual was forbidn. Jon said he had known he was gay sce he was 6-years-old and had jt cid to risk keepg the secret orr to serve wh one of the most ele ary forc the those three words jt about did him .

""Brett Jon served his untry honorably, " Navy spokperson Greg Raelson told ABC News rponse to a requt for ment for this ' SEAL team quickly found out, and though Jon said the special operatns world is "ultra-mascule" and apt to pat the gay muny a negative light, actually most of his teammat were supportive.

MEET BRETT JON, A GAY NAVY SEAL

"RELATED: Gay NFL Prospect Michael Sam Gets Whe Hoe Shout-OutsJon eventually nnected wh SLDN, the associatn for actively servg LGBT ary personnel, who lled on the help of a Washgton, D. Brandon Webb, managg edor at and a former SEAL om the same Basic Unrwater Demoln/SEAL class as Jon, wrote on the webse that he had no ia Jon was gay at the time, but didn't matter. "And while policians and relig fanatics ma a fs about gays servg the ary, the men and women proudly served their untry silence, and earned the rpect of their peers until DADT was eventually repealed… I am proud to ll [Jon] my iend.

The first openly gay SEAL has built a new life here at age 41 wh a fay that has replaced the two fai he lost — the one that raised him and the one he built wh fellow SEALs.

He was also gay. The two men are parents to Ethan, a prec 13-year-old known the flat, clay and pe untry as the only kid school wh two gay dads. Both his parents and the Navy banished him bee he’s gay.

EXCLIVE: MY NAME IS BRETT JON, I AM A NAVY SEAL, AND I AM GAY

On this steamy night, the two gay parents and their straight son are sweatg and shovg as they fight to w a roughhoe driveway basketball game lled Cheater Ball. They are close, and necsarily so, sce a gay marriage — not to mentn gay parentg — is viewed wh ep spicn and outright hostily perhaps the most anti-gay state the untry. When he was high school, his mother, a vout Christian, overheard his phone nversatn wh a gay iend.

He had served for six years and two ployments on mandg, secretive missns when his homosexualy was disvered. They gossiped about him, ridiculg gays and sayg a homosexual SEAL would stroy un hn. The Navy dropped s vtigatn after Jon enlisted a natnal group that advot for gays the ary, and after members of Congrs tervened.

Whe, 37, had lived his own secret, tormented life growg up Athens, where gays were ridiculed and monized. His father cracked jok about homosexuals.

KNIV SAVE LIV: NAVY SEAL JOHN GAY

” His father apologized for all his gay slurs over the years.

FORMER SEAL ALLEG ANTI-GAY HARASSMENT CIA

Whe and his brother, Matt, helped persua Jon to self-publish a memoir, “Pri: The Story of the First Openly Gay Navy SEAL, ” released October. Jon and Whe want to sell the hoe and move Ethan to a public school nearby Huntsville, which they ll “a progrsive island” a state so hostile to gay marriage that s chief Supreme Court jtice orred unti to disobey a feral urt orr Febary permtg gay marriage. Still, they don’t expect a gay-pri para Toney anytime soon.

“Of urse, every day I take a drive is a gay-pri para, ” Whe says. The clients of their secury pany don’t particularly re that ’s owned and managed by two gay men, Whe says. Today, Jon is active the Trevor Project, which operat 24-hour suici hotl for troubled lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) young people.

They never discs Christiany or “the gay thg, ” Jon says. The first openly gay SEAL has built a new life here at age 41 wh a fay that has replaced the two he lost – the one that raised him and the one he built wh fellow SEALs.

EX-NAVY SEAL ALLEG ANTI-GAY BULLYG BY CIA WORKERS

His parents and the Navy banished him bee he’s gay. They gossiped about him, ridiculg gays and sayg a gay SEAL would stroy un hn. The Navy dropped s vtigatn after Jon enlisted a natnal group that advot for gay people the ary, and after members of Congrs tervened.

GAY CIA CONTRACTOR CLAIMS DANGERO HARASSMENT WAR ZONE

Whe, 37, had lived his own secret, tormented life growg up Athens, where gay people were ridiculed and monized. His father cracked jok g gay slurs. Whe and his brother, Matt, helped nvce Jon to self-publish a memoir, “Pri: The Story of the First Openly Gay Navy SEAL, ” released October.

NAVY'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

Acrdg to The Trevor Project, a rearch and advocy group for gay young people, LGBTQ youth are more than four tim as likely to attempt suici than their peers. He is also gay, and has been his whole life. Beg a gay Navy SEAL, morn society, is still a novel ncept, spe the recent stanc of others g out a highly public way.

Pri: The Story of the First Openly Gay Navy SEAL (Dog Ear Publishg, 160 p., 2014) is Brett’s story of arrivg at that place. Beg gay, and g to that realizatn over time, is only a part of Brett’s story Pri. Brett hid his homosexualy bee he had to, and so perhaps rried more baggage wh him to his life as a SEAL.

A gay Navy SEAL has shared his story of secrecy and g out durg the era of "don't ask, don't tell. "Brett Jon reunts memori of beg a closeted special operatns member statned at the Naval Amphib Base Norfolk, Va., a first-person acunt posted to, a news source for ary the article, Jon shar a specific cint which a man named Mike, whom he met at a gay bar Virgia Beach, leav a voice mail askg him to go on a date. "I had met a number of people at gay bars the area who still had been dishonorably discharged for , " he wr.

NAVY'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

"Beg a Navy SEAL and gay proposed s own set of problems. Fortunately for me, was not obv to people that I was gay. "He reunts how he would have to ceive both his SEAL team and Mike orr to protect himself om expulsn unr the ary policy, which prohibed gay, lbian, and bisexual service members om beg open about their sexual orientatn until s repeal 2011.

"Beg gay is not a choice, " Jon ntu. "It was bee of that support, om my brothers, that I uld proudly say, 'My name is Brett Jon, I am a Navy SEAL, and I am gay, '" he Brandon Webb, a fellow Navy SEAL and the edor chief of, not his troductn to Jon's acunt: "The people wh whom I've worked the Special Operatns muny are more ncerned wh an dividual's ntributn to the team, and their abily to do their job exceptnally well, than their race or sexual preferenc. Gays Special Operatns existed long before the ceptn and eventual ath of Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell (DADT).

And while policians and relig fanatics ma a fs about gays servg the ary, the men and women proudly served their untry silence, and earned the rpect of their peers until DADT was eventually repealed. I was a BUD/S 215 classmate of Brett Jon, had no ia he was gay at the time, and I am proud to ll him my iend.