Duffy: Don’t ask my fellow soldiers about ‘Don’t Ask’

I have a lot of opinions. I am sure that we all have a lot of opinions. Why in the world would a big army open up the question of whether to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to soldiers?

I was never provided an army-sponsored chance to express my feelings on the Iraq or Afghanistan war. I have never been asked to discuss my feelings on anything, really. I was told that the Army isn’t a democracy and was not able to voice my opinion on anything or anyone I may have had to share my bay, chu, or tent with.

Recently I read that the first submariner females were graduating the naval academy. I missed my chance to comment on that idea. I missed my chance to comment on many things, apparently. It’s not like the Army has a Facebook page designed for servicemembers to comment on how they feel about each sex, each creed and each race. Why is the gay community singled out as a group that it is ok to comment on? Why haven’t I heard much of an uproar against this idea?

Each stage of integrating women and African-Americans throughout the years was undoubtedly met with plenty of opinionated military personnel at all ranks. They made movies such as “GI Jane”and “Men of Honor” to show the opinions and the battles that segments of the population face to be treated equally. There was never a suggestion box for soldiers to place their comments expressing their willingness, or lack thereof, to serve next to others. Integration happened and you had to suck it up and drive on.

I am extremely worried that this process will be used to develop excuses to keep the gay military ban from being repealed. At best, it seems to be a method of garnering support for more separate-but-equal laws like those used outside of the military for marriage and adoption.

I find nothing positive or pleasurable in the idea of being “free” to be a target for discriminatory policies after I am allowed to be out. I would rather stay mute on some important parts of my life and serve than serve while constantly evaluating any new rules or laws that set me apart as something other than a soldier.

Oh, and next time they want to bail out banks… I would like to comment on that too.

‘Michael Duffy’ is the pseudonym of a soldier who formerly served in Iraq.

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 …

‘Out of Annapolis’

‘Out of Annapolis,’ a documentary film featuring 35 gay alumni of the U.S. Naval Academy, has almost been completed. The filmmakers, an organization called USNA Out, are hoping to get it shown at festivals come summer 2009. A preliminary trailer has been released: See ‘Out of Annapolis’

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Retired 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 …
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