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Last week we met Just-A-Joe, the active duty gay American soldier serving his second tour in Iraq. He began blogging his experience earlier in the month, and then dropped a bombshell: He came out to his comrades, without planning on it. And despite assurances from his direct superior, that he would not reveal Joe’s sexuality to others, a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell investigation began. Queerty‘s David Hauslaib spoke to him over Easter weekend from Baghdad, where Joe remains in limbo — halfway between being kicked out and not knowing what’s going to happen.
(Please forgive the audio quality in parts. New York-to-Baghdad calls aren’t always the clearest, and there is often a delay, which is why there’s some talking over each other; we’ve been able to edit out some gaps.)
Let’s discuss:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
• How Joe came out to comrades
• How his superior ended up reporting him, and landed him a DADT discharge investigation
• Where the investigation, just days in, currently stands
• How the military treats known gay soldiers serving in the Middle East, and disposes of them when they’re back home
• Whether he believes Obama and Congress can get DADT repealed, and whether the president has any trust left among LGBTs and soldiers
• What he’s doing from Iraq to lobby his lawmakers
• Whether the strategies of HRC and Dan Choi are proving worthwhile
• If Defense Sec. Gates and Army Sec. McHugh’s new remarks represent any substantial change
• Whether he regrets coming out (We’ll tell you the answer to that one: No)
• If there’s any there’s any truth to the idea that openly gay soldiers will somehow hurt the military
• If he’d discharged under DADT, then what?
• Will he ever come out from under the cloak of anonymity? Why is he speaking out now?
Joe is reading the site. Expect your comments to reach him. You can also read his blog at RepealNow.org.
Lanjier
This is how we treat America’s heroes? How did repealing DADT get to the bottom of the Administration’s to do list?
jizz
“fuck the troops. fuck america. allahu akbar.”
Michelle
Joe, you are a hero for two reasons. Firstly for fighting for your country and secondly for coming out. These are two things that many of us are too scared to do and you’re out there fighting two very tough fights for which you have my complete and total respect.
malcanoid
I am appalled that your country is treating you in this unjustified, disgusting and ignorant manner. I can only urge you to have the fortitude to withstand the humilations that they will try to heap upon you and continue to be who you are with a sense of pride and dignity. You have done nothing wrong. You do not deserve this and do not, for one millisecond, let them make you think that you do. You have my utmost respect. Good luck during what is likely to be a tough time.
malcanoid
@jizz: Jizz, There is no god and fuck you too!
Jon
Obama: You have to get this done this YEAR! Or else no gay money no gay support. Maybe we should all chain ourselves to the White House.
kiltnc
Just-A-Joe,
Be sure to contact Servicemembers Legal Defense Network for free legal help. Thank you for your service!
http://www.sldn.org/page/s/legalhelp
JamesR
Joe – Thank you for your service Thank you for your sacrifice – of your life and now your career. Hopefully a future act of congress will restore your hard earned benefits you may be losing. You could have gotten PTSD, instead you got honest – all soldiers today are put into a completely untenable situation by this. This is not my father’s army, not the army of friends of mine who were in in the ’80s. DADT itself is so corrosive to everyone’s morale – like it turns all soldiers into thought police snitching on each other – when we are at WAR and such thoughts should not be turned inwards. Corrosive, destructive. profoundly un-American. Soldiers coming out, getting fragged, are part of the Good Fight and show that bad orders, unjust stupid impractical un-American ones simply cant hold.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
My attempts to listen to the audio keep crashing, but from what I’ve read, here’s my advice.
1. KILTNC is correct. Even IF the military were dealing honestly, openly, and consistently with you…and there is every reason to believe they will continue NOT to… you STILL need legal advice from SLDN.
Among other things, SLDN is sure to tell you to fight for an “Honorable” discharge if the military has no justification for discharging you other than “being gay.” Anything less and you will be denied GI Bill benefits, and, I believe, VA medical benefits. The military has been known to tell dischargees to accept a “General” discharge to quickly get things over as it will automatically be upgraded to an Honorable. It will NOT.
2. The other reason to tell your story to SLDN is because of their secondary mission: ending DADT. While you continue to get the run around from your Senator, if they believe your story can help end DADT, they will help publicize it. That is likely [but not certain] to require your no longer speaking anonymously. There is a direct correlation between credibility and the ability to verify a name.
A potential but NOT guaranteed personal side benefit is that notoriety MIGHT delay your actual processing out [but not the discharge hearing, etc.] It has been more than a year since Dan Choi publicly outed himself, and soon will be for Victor Fehrenbach. Despite the fact that the hearings for each of them recommended discharge, finalization of that is still floating around the Pentagon unquestionably solely because of their notoriety.
Only you can and should decide if that’s what you want to do; whether the risk is worth not only everyone in the military having the potential to know about you, but the effect such publicity would have on your family and friends.
Good luck.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
SLDN’s telephone number:
202-328-3244 x 100
Jason
SLDN is WAY better than HRC.
But you know what is WAY better than that: is Servicemembers United and VoteVets.org.
http://www.servicemembersunited.org
http://www.votevets.org
All made up of OIF/OEF vets and folks like that.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
Servicemembers United and VoteVets ARE great organizations.
But SU cofounder Alex Nicholson, whom I’m proud to call a friend, would be the first to tell “Joe” that SLDN is the first resource to approach for DADT-related LEGAL advice.
Kieran
Could it possibly be any more ironic that gay American soldiers like Joe are fighting over in Iraq risking life and limb for Iraqi “Freedom”?
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
Ya want irony? Out gay Stuart O’Brien [seen below] is a Chief Petty Officer in the Australian Royal Navy. Australia lifted their ban on gay servicemembers even before our ban became the law DADT. And, thanks to the efforts of Stuart and his partner Chris, other couples like them can now LIVE IN MILITARY HOUSING alongside straight couples even tho Australia doesn’t have “marriage equality” either.
On Stuart’s second tour of duty in Baghdad, during which he received a Meritorious Service Medal for his service in Iraq from OUR government, authorized by Gen. David “No Repeal Before Another Study” Petraeus,” he befriended, as he had the first tour, a number of American gay soldiers forced to serve in silence. One day, one of them walked up to him clearly upset about something. When asked what was wrong, he replied that his American soldier-partner had been killed by an IED in Northern Iraq and he was drowning in grief amplified by the fact that he couldn’t tell any of his friends in his unit, his commander, or even speak to a chaplain without fear of being discharged. Stuart comforted him as best he could and took him to the AUSTRALIAN unit’s chaplain who welcomed him with the kind of open heart and acceptance the country his partner had died for denied them both.
Yes, under the new regs, that soldier could, in theory, speak to an American chaplain with impunity. But, as enemies of repeal remind us again and again, unit cohesion is based upon a unique bond, upon the belief that one can trust those one fights beside with one’s sorrows as well as one’s joys, with pictures and stories of those one loves, and of those one loses. His chaplain may have kept his secret, but without repeal he still could not tell his band of brothers that it isn’t only straight soldiers that are shipped home in boxes, it isn’t only the mothers and fathers of straight sons and daughters who clutch folded flags as their children are lowered into the ground, and it isn’t only straight military wives and husbands who weep and mourn.
[img]http://www.leonardmatlovich.com/images/280_Stuart-O_Brien-Mat.jpg[/img]
Vegan!
Heartbreaking and sickening. It pisses me off that our elected officials don’t give a shit about us in the GLBTQ community.