Stepping Up
Editor's note: a SLDN supporter and veteran speaks out about last week's Republican presidential debate.
“The policy is working my friends. The policy is working”.
Respectfully, Sen. McCain, I’m going to step up and disagree. With a string of emails in about my sexual orientation, jokes and all, flying through the USS Frank Cable’s official email traffic last fall, I’d have to say that it works only for heterosexual military members.
It was this homophobic email and the decreasingly subtle comments by my enlisted superiors throughout my command that led me to write a two page letter to my commanding officer to let him know that my time had come. Ten years and one step away from making Chief Petty Officer myself, I knew that my perceived sexual orientation would be an issue during the Navy’s “Chief’s Initiation”. It was time to leave before I suffered very real humiliation with no “real” options for recourse.
I put up with rumors and speculation for nine years and every decision I made in close quarters began with this – “What will people think?”
One superior, in confidence, encouraged me to reconsider my "admission". “There’s growing support for making this go away. I really believe that this is going to go away.” I said thank you and then respectfully replied that as long as President Bush remains president, this was a false hope.
The truth is, many conservative leaders are still carrying the banner marked “Onward Christian Soldiers”. They are unwittingly subscribing to the idea that our armed forces are not soldiers, they’re missionaries.
I knew that most people had no idea or cared very little about who or what I was in my private life. If they did, I would’ve faced a discharge several times over the course of my career. The fact remains, however, that by not being able to openly talk about it, I often found myself forced into secrecy, lying to coworkers and pretending to be someone I was not.
Sen. McCain, if you believe that gay and lesbian service members should be held to a lower standard of integrity than their counterparts; if you believe that lying and emotional blackmail are American values; if you believe that standing naked next to a gay translator in a military locker room is more of a threat than the messages he deciphers from terrorists, then “My Friend”, you are absolutely right – “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” works.
- Former Navy Petty Officer First Class Jeremy JohnsonLabels: in the news, presidential candidates, veterans, your stories
-----06-13-07
Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.