Forced into closet by nation they serve
Wednesday in Annapolis, the United States Naval Academy welcomed the most racially and ethnically diverse class in its history: 14 percent Hispanic, 10 percent African-American - and perhaps 2 percent to 3 percent homosexual. I added that last part. No one knows how many plebes are gay or lesbian, but studies have placed the percentage of homosexual men and women serving this nation’s military in that range, with some 65,000 said to be on active duty. It’s a fairly safe assumption that a small percentage of plebes will have to keep their sexuality a secret if they want to graduate from the academy and, after that, fulfill their obligations to the country.
That’s what “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” demands.
It forces men and women serving the nation to lie about their sexual orientation or risk discharge. An estimated 13,000 men and women have been discharged under Don’t Ask in the 16 years since the law took effect. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network says 277 of the discharges have occurred since Barack Obama became president. As a candidate, Mr. Obama pledged to end Don’t Ask. Last week, the he reiterated his support for eventual repeal of the law by Congress.
Skip Muller was a midshipman at the Naval Academy at the start of the Don’t Ask era. Prior to entering the academy, he had studied Russian at the Defense Language Institute in California.
“As an 18-year-old I struggled to understand my own sexuality, while all around me I saw people actively targeted, investigated and ejected from the military because they were homosexual,” Mr. Mullen writes on the Web site of USNAOut, an organization of gay Naval Academy alumni. “I forced myself to date women and live the lie that consumed and exhausted me for years to come.”
After graduating from the academy in 1996, Mr. Muller served two tours aboard destroyers, the second cut short by honorable discharge under Don’t Ask. See
Forced into closet by nation they serve
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Alderman charged with groping sailor
(Annapolis, Maryland) An Annapolis alderman who was charged with a sexual crime and assault on a 21-year-old Naval Academy midshipman is denying the allegations and says he will fight them in court.
Police charging documents said Alderman Samuel Shropshire touched a male midshipman’s crotch last week in a car. Shropshire, a …
Tags: Alderman, Allegations, Annapolis Maryland, Midshipman, Naval Academy, Sexual Crime, ShropshireRetired captain focuses documentary lens on gay and lesbian …
One captain in the Marine Corps had to sign the confining orders to send a lesbian to jail, but was so disturbed that the next day the officer, who was also gay, submitted his resignation papers. Another man, from the Naval Academy Class of 1958, was kicked out of the military because his name was found in the address book of a “known homosexual.” Other gay men and lesbians left the service because like Steve Clark Hall, a nuclear submarine captain who retired after a 20-year Navy career, they could no longer bear the burden of harboring an enormous secret about their identity. “I was tired of being single and not being able to live life the way I wanted to,” said Hall, 54, who has begun gathering these stories for Out of Annapolis, the documentary film he is making about gay and lesbian alumni of the Naval Academy.
Like many of his fellow academy graduates, Hall is devoted to the institution he says deeply shaped him morally and intellectually: He is part of the “President’s Circle” of donors, which requires a minimum annual gift of $2,500 to the academy’s foundation. He talks in glowing terms about his time in Annapolis, the lightweight crew team, the friendships he made and the mentors who guided him. He rarely takes off his class ring.
This clean-cut Navy booster who still has trouble putting his hands in his pockets - something Mids were not supposed to do - might not seem like an obvious candidate to undertake a project sure to thrill some and outrage others. But though he insists that making waves goes against his relatively conservative nature, he is pouring his time and a good chunk of his money into documenting what he sees as an important, and all too often invisible, part of military history.
“When I was a midshipman, there were no gay or lesbian role models,” he said. “All we ever heard was when someone was kicked out.” See Retired captain focuses documentary lens on gay and lesbian …
Baltimore Sun, United States
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