Posted on 11/08/2003 2:19:05 AM PST by kattracks
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — While at the Naval Academy in the late '80s, Jeff Petrie thought he was the only gay midshipman at the school. Homophobia was rife, and he took pains to hide his sexual orientation."I kept my secret. I lived a double life in exchange for the opportunity to serve," he said.
Now, Petrie is leading an effort to establish an official gay and lesbian chapter of the school's alumni association, in what would be a first for any U.S. service academy.
The chapter's 29 members-to-be, none of whom still serve in the military, want to support gay midshipmen still bound by the Department of Defense's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Petrie said.
"Just by existing, I think we will be able to help current midshipmen by showing them we have been through it successfully, and if that's what they want to do, they can do it too," said Petrie.
Petrie, a 1989 graduate, said he plans to file an application with the academy's alumni association next week.
He said the academy has fostered a "disapproving and damaging environment for gay and lesbian midshipmen for decades."
"We don't have the power to change that," said Petrie, who now lives in San Francisco and calls his would-be chapter USNA Out. "But we do have the power to make things a little easier."
Skid Heyworth, vice president of communications for the military college's alumni association, said Friday he had not received the group's application but would pass it to the association's board of directors for review. He said he didn't know of any similar request in the academy's history.
"We're not going to speculate on the 'what-ifs' at this point until we see the request," Heyworth said.
Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said it's the first request for official recognition by gay and lesbian service academy graduates. There are several unofficial networks, often with anonymous members, around the country, he said.
"I'm impressed with what they're trying to do," Belkin said.
"To a greater extent than ever, officers will say they're not uncomfortable around gays and lesbians on a personal level. But there are still pockets of intense resistance to integration."
Petrie said he has been working since July to compile a roster of potential members, all of whom belong to the Service Academy Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association, a 150-member alumni association that is not officially sanctioned by any of the military academies. Many of its members are anonymous.
An official gay and lesbian chapter of the Naval Academy's alumni association would take a step forward, advertising its members and offering contact information, said John Sewell, a 1990 graduate who has signed onto the roster.
"Being out would give the group a little more political say," said Sewell, who now lives in Seattle after serving three years as a nuclear submarine officer in Norfolk, Va. "We know who the members are, and we're not some hidden organization."
Sewell, of Seattle, who served three years as a nuclear submarine officer in Norfolk, Va., said the academy's alumni association would simply be following the lead of other colleges and universities by agreeing to a gay chapter.
"If I had graduated from Harvard or Yale or Stanford, I would have an official chapter, so for me it's, 'Why not?'" he said.
Petrie said he learned he wasn't the academy's only gay midshipman during a weekend trip to Washington, D.C., when he met a fellow gay midshipman carrying a USNA duffel bag.
"He started talking to me and said, 'Do I know you?' I pointed to his bag and said, 'I think we go to the same school.' We immediately became best friends," Petrie said.
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You can rest assured that if the Alumni Association rejects Petrie's proposal--who really doubts that is will?--a lawsuit will soon follow. And of course, this is all purely coincidental and not part of any coordinated strategy by the gay&lesbian community.
To serve what?
What thoughts must have raced through his perverted mind while engaging in group showers.
If they had their own country (say on Devil's Island) they could have their own fruitcake Navy and Army. They could screw their brains out, and, with them out of the USA, society and children would be protected against their evil agenda.
Eventually they would become extinct.
So is this true, or was it rather distrust, disgust, wariness, or plain discomfort?
(All of these qualify as homophobia, of course).
That's fine. Why screw up a good idea at this stage of the game?
5.56mm
Beat Navy will always mean something different now. Just kidding. Congrats on having a great season. You guys deserve one after so long.
"The homosexual movement has a history of trying to claw its way into places its agenda doesn’t belong, not for the betterment of mankind, but simply to legitimize and normalize perverse behavior. This is apparent in the all-too-common need of homosexuals to declare their sexuality rather than simply do the job they sign on to do.
This is extremely detrimental - first, it creates conflict with others as most believe homosexuality to be wrong, and it shows that the full efforts of the employed homosexual are not going towards performing the task at hand but largely to declaring their lifestyle. When it comes to serious concerns such as the Church, schools, and the Boy Scouts that involve our children, we can’t take the risk of giving them this power to destroy the values we as parents try to instill, nor can we put our country’s welfare at stake by turning these pivotal foundational institutions and our military into homosexual social experiments.
The homosexual movement is marked by two major tendencies: the tendency to continually infiltrate all good aspects of society; and once they have achieved that, the tendency to destroy this good. Public education, the Boy Scouts, the military, and now the Catholic Church have been targeted, and all have been hurt by the effects of homosexuality. The media and the Church must break its silence towards this enemy. If they do not, the people themselves must rise up and expose it..."
-- Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Homosexual Priests: A Time for Truth, The Washington Dispatch, May 6, 2002
Good point.
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