Most lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr service members are still reluctant to disclose their sexual orientatn or inty.
Contents:
I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
Gay the Milary: Wh Ben Br, Lorrae Rodriguez-Rey." data-id="ma * what would you do gay military *
Polls show a majory of Amerins support the end of the 17-year-old policy, but others have openly opposed the cisn.The repeal remas a hot topic, so "What Would You Do?" cid to set up hidn meras si the Colonial Der Lyndhurst, N.J., to see how people felt about openly gay servicemen showg affectn public.
Demetroul even stood up at one pot and mand that the stigator leave the der, rtg him towards the door.When we later told Demetroul the scene was all part of "What Would You Do?", he told our John Quon he felt bad for the servicemen."I figured [they'd] been through enough as is," he said.As the actors played out the scenar aga and aga, many other ders also nonted the stigator and told him to leave the affectnate soldiers alone.Dpe observg the soldiers hug each other and stroke each other's legs, some ders later told they did not realize the soldiers were supposed to be a gay uple, even though they had no problem wh the mens' homosexualy.Gay Soldiers HarassedMar Battenurt was one der who seemed to ignore the soldiers' affectn as well as our stigator who eventually nonted them. Smh thanked the "serviceman" and lled him a hero, even after he disvered the soldier was gay."It don't matter to me whatsoever," Smh said. It's necsary, or we both die."We wonred what would happen when we swched our actors and swapped out the gay men for gay women.
GAY THE MILARY
"What Would You Do?" Gay the Milary (TV Episo) st and crew creds, cludg actors, actrs, directors, wrers and more. * what would you do gay military *
In rponse, and apparently to monstrate his petency his assigned posn, the nonmissned officer had taken upon himself to approach the person he nsired cled toward mtg a siar offense the future: me, the only openly gay soldier my un. Together we approached our un’s learship, where she sisted that the ments had stemmed om the reprentative’s own homophobic feelgs and remend that he be reprimand and removed om his posn as the un’s sexual harassment watchdog. But by then was hard to ignore the anxiety I felt durg required social activi — “mandatory fun, ” as ’s lled the ary — or the tensn om my fellow moment I cid to bee a soldier and the moment I chose to live openly as a gay man occurred so closely time that ’s hard to remember which me first.
It was still four months before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell, ” a double-edged policy prohibg askg any service member about his or her sexualy while enforcg a ban on openly gay service members.
* what would you do gay military *
Mike and Abe were to mentor me on how to survive as a gay serviceman. As long as gay soldiers kept their mouths shut, the burn of proof fell on those makg the accatns.
The Uned Stat ary stggled wh s stance on gay service members for s prr to the signg of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” 1993 by former Print Bill Clton., * what would you do gay military *
A uple were more elaborate: tailed scriptns of what might happen to me if I was ught alone, and proclamatns about the wrongns of gays the ary. There are moments when feels wrong to claim my stat as a veteran; as if beg gay ma me ls of a soldier and somehow validated my service. Every memory evok an emotn: rage that I had to serve wh a nstant sense of fear of my fellow soldiers; paralyzg sadns for those who endured ab worse than I n know; and, the worst, guilt over the service members — gay or straight or transgenr — who died while servg the ary while my body is still whole.