HuffPost Live Talks Wh Brett Jon, The First Openly Gay Navy SEAL | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW
• ACCINTAL 'I LOVE YOU' DERAILED GAY NAVY SEAL'S CAREER
• EXCLIVE: MY NAME IS BRETT JON, I AM A NAVY SEAL, AND I AM GAY
• BRETT JON: FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL SLAMS TMP’S BIGOTRY
• BRETT JON, FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL, TO SPEAK HUNTSVILLE
• PRI: THE STORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL – A BOOK REVIEW
• CIA HEAD INDIT SWIFT ACTN AFTER WARZONE GAY HARASSMENT CLAIMS
• MEET BRETT JON, A GAY NAVY SEAL
• TALKG WH BRETT JON, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL
• HUFFPOST LIVE TALKS WH BRETT JON, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL
• FATHER, HBAND AND FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL: 6 QUTNS WH ALABAMIAN BRETT JON
• GAY CIA CONTRACTOR, HARASSED WAR ZONE, SAYS ISSU 'ROLVED' WH SPY AGENCY
• GAY CIA CONTRACTOR CLAIMS DANGERO HARASSMENT WAR ZONE
• PRI: THE STORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL

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.

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

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. He was terrogated by a ary lawyer who mand he nfs to beg gay.

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

” 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.

BRETT JON: FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL SLAMS TMP’S BIGOTRY

“We have the only tornado shelter on the street, ” Whe, they don’t expect a gay pri para Toney anytime soon.

BRETT JON, FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL, TO SPEAK HUNTSVILLE

“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. 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 .

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

""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. "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. Gays Special Operatns existed long before the ceptn and eventual ath of Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell (DADT).

CIA HEAD INDIT SWIFT ACTN AFTER WARZONE GAY HARASSMENT CLAIMS

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.

MEET BRETT JON, A GAY NAVY SEAL

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. My Name is Brett Jon, I Am A Navy SEAL, And I Am Gay. I had met Mike at a gay bar Virgia Beach the week prr.

The Navy had a Don’t-ask Don’t-tell policy (DADT), and I had met a number of people at gay bars the area who still had been dishonorably discharged for . Beg a Navy SEAL and gay proposed s own set of problems.

Fortunately for me, was not obv to people that I was gay. Beg gay is not a choice.

TALKG WH BRETT JON, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL

It n be very difficult to accept who you are, pecially an environment that has a history of treatg LBGT (Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgenr) people negatively. 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.

However, he hid for years that he was also gay and a long term relatnship. Jon’ SEAL team found out, and even though at tim the special operatns world had negative views towards the gay muny his team was actually supportive.

HUFFPOST LIVE TALKS WH BRETT JON, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL

My gut today is Brett Jon, who was the first openly gay Navy SEAL. At tim seems like, well, we n't even see the top of that mounta, and then seemgly overnight, granted, wh a ton of work by mted advot and a ton of sacrifice by a lot of people, but what seems like overnight, there's a mental shift, and somethg that would've seemed unthkable to my parents' generatn, legalized gay marriage, my kids jt take for granted.

" And that rulted Obergefell makg before the Supreme Court and makg legalized gay marriage the law of the land, not jt a state by state thg. And remds me of a very old YouTube vio of yours that we dug up where you're talkg about your feelgs after Obergefell, and you ma some ment about the se of the bakery that refed to serve a gay uple.

FATHER, HBAND AND FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL: 6 QUTNS WH ALABAMIAN BRETT JON

You said, "I wonred if a gay uple me to J and asked him to make them a chair for their weddg, you know what J would do?

Our bras work that way, and 's easier to tegorize thgs and file them away as, "Oh, that's gay, " or, "Oh, that's far right, " or, "Oh, that's far left, " or whatever. And growg up a very relig environment as a gay person, man, 's hard. Gay people, bad, " or whatever.

" And when I e across people that rent me jt bee of me beg gay or whatever, my first thought is like, "Oh, man.

GAY CIA CONTRACTOR, HARASSED WAR ZONE, SAYS ISSU 'ROLVED' WH SPY AGENCY

How do your lleagu feel about the fact that you're a gay ex-Navy SEAL? He is also gay, and has been his whole life.

GAY CIA CONTRACTOR CLAIMS DANGERO HARASSMENT WAR ZONE

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. — -- The Director of the CIA today addrsed recent allegatns by a gay CIA ntractor who said he was harassed while on a dangero ployment by other CIA ntractors and staff officers, sayg his spy agency has “zero tolerance” for such behavr and ditg the agency is movg swiftly rponse.

”Brennan ma the ments rponse to ABC News' qutns about Brett Jon, a gay former Navy SEAL and 13-year CIA ntractor. In an exclive televisn terview late last month, Jon alleged that on his most recent ployment to Afghanistan this summer, he enuntered a disturbg pattern of harassment and wnsed blatant homophobic, racist and sexist behavr om his own teammat -- both ntractors and CIA officials. Jon said he’s been ntact wh a CIA reprentative and is workg wh them on their vtigatn -- an vtigatn the CIA won't nfirm is Jon on one of dozens of ployments as a ntractor for the JonOverall, Brennan said today he’s “very, very proud of what the agency’s rerd has been on LGBT [the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr issu].

”“As someone who me at a time when dividuals were prevented om jog the agency for sexual preference, we, I thk, have been leadg some rpects of the last two s, ” Brennan said, cg the work done by the CIA’s ternal LGBT support anizatn, the Agency Network of Gay, Lbian, Bisexual, and Transgenr Employe (ANGLE). ”In his terview wh ABC News, Jon agreed and said that the CIA hired him back the early 2000s well aware that he was gay. A gay Navy SEAL has shared his story of secrecy and g out durg the era of "don't ask, don't tell.

PRI: THE STORY OF THE FIRST OPENLY GAY NAVY SEAL

"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.

"Beg a Navy SEAL and gay proposed s own set of problems. "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.