Navy’s first openly gay SEAL builds his life anew – The Virgian-Pilot

Contents:

• NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW
• ACCINTAL 'I LOVE YOU' DERAILED GAY NAVY SEAL'S CAREER
• WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK
• EXCLIVE: MY NAME IS BRETT JON, I AM A NAVY SEAL, AND I AM GAY
• KNIV SAVE LIV: NAVY SEAL JOHN GAY

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.

WHEN GAY SAILOR WAS OUTED, HE FOUND HIS NAVY BUDDI HAD HIS BACK

” 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. 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.

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

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 .

KNIV SAVE LIV: NAVY SEAL JOHN GAY

""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.