'I Don't Feel Part Of The Milary Anymore': Openly Gay Pilot Leav After Harassment : NPR

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• 'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT
• NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW
• PRINT NOMAT FIRST OPENLY GAY ARMY SECRETARY
• GAYS THE MILARY
• THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ARMY SECRETARY U.S. HISTORY
• AIR FORCE VETERAN ONCE IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY STILL ENDUR THE STIGMA OF A FELONY RERD
• ERIC FANNG, FIRST OPENLY GAY ARMY SECRETARY, CONFIRMED BY U.S. SENATE
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• WOMAN BE FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL

I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.

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.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

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.

'I DON'T FEEL PART OF THE MILARY ANYMORE': OPENLY GAY PILOT LEAV AFTER HARASSMENT

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. 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.

NAVY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SEAL BUILDS HIS LIFE ANEW

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. Sce 2011, openly gay, lbian and bisexual men and women have been permted to serve the ary.

PRINT NOMAT FIRST OPENLY GAY ARMY SECRETARY

It wasn’t until 1982 that the ary enacted a policy explicly banng gay men and lbians om their ranks. And the early 1940s, was classified as a mental illns, disqualifyg gay men and lbians om service. Eighteen years later, Congrs repealed the policy, allowg openly gay, lbian and bisexual people to serve the ary.

Tammy Smh, the ary’s hight-rankg openly gay officer, me out 2012, she has tried beg an example of livg thentilly while also beg a bean of visibily to other Soldiers and their fai. The policy banned lbians, gay men and bisexuals om servg the ary. It terrified her to e out as gay such a public way, but she felt a rponsibily to do , she said.

GAYS THE MILARY

As difficult as was for her, g out publicly as gay “may not have been as easy for someone who was at a lower rank, ” Smh said an terview last week. “When I me durg the 80s, thgs were different for women and gay people, and now 2021, the societal l are different aga.

“People mt fd fort and ph back some of that ternalized homophobia, and build a b on the journey between hont and thentic. 'I Don't Feel Part Of The Milary Anymore': Openly Gay Pilot Leav After Harassment One of Naval Aviatn's few openly gay pilots is leavg his ary reer behd after only six years, cg harassment as the reason. 'I Don't Feel Part Of The Milary Anymore': Openly Gay Pilot Leav After Harassment.

One of Naval Aviatn's few openly gay pilots is leavg his ary reer behd after only six years, cg harassment as the reason. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: A after "don't ask, don't tell" end, one of Naval aviatn's few openly gay pilots is on his way out.

THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ARMY SECRETARY U.S. HISTORY

KPBS' Steve Walsh has the WALSH, BYLINE: For most of his six years the Navy, Litenant Adam Adamski says he felt supported as an openly gay pilot. And I saw my drs wh draped over and around the TV, and there was hardre gay porn His uniform was wrapped around a TV playg pornography.

ADAMSKI: I received numero lls om people that are the closet that squadron, both men and women, and openly gay service members tellg me that they are upset and that they don't thk the climate, pecially for pilots, is a good climate that squadron and that they thk I should report The don't ask, don't tell policy end a ago, allowg LGBT service members to serve openly. 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.

AIR FORCE VETERAN ONCE IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY STILL ENDUR THE STIGMA OF A FELONY RERD

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.

ERIC FANNG, FIRST OPENLY GAY ARMY SECRETARY, CONFIRMED BY U.S. SENATE

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.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

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.

WOMAN BE FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL

” 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.