LGBT leaders push for next ship to be named Harvey Milk
April 24th, 2012 | Don't ask don't tell Navy Navy secretary | Posted by Jacqueline Klimas
An upcoming addition to the Navy’s fleet may be the USS Harvey Milk if Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., and other San Diego gay rights leaders have their way about it.
The GLBT Historic Task Force of San Diego County and Filner sent letters to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week asking for Harvey Milk to be considered as a name for a submarine, carrier or other appropriate vessel, according to a PR Newswire press release.
Milk, a late civil rights icon, was a Navy veteran who served aboard the submarine rescue ship Kittiwake as a diving officer during the Korean War. He went on to be a diving instructor at Naval Station San Diego. Milk, whose parents both also served in the Navy, was honorably discharged at the rank of lieutenant junior grade.
In his letter, Rep. Filner wrote “this action would be a fitting tribute to Mr. Milk’s support for equality, an ideal exemplified in the military’s recent repeal of its former Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy,” according to the press release.
The request comes after a series of controversial namings, such as the littoral combat ship Gabrielle Giffords or destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson, that have caused Congress to ask Mabus for a report due in June detailing the process that Navy uses to name ships.
Rudy’s one-liners
January 27th, 2012 | Don't ask Historical Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek - Fort Story Naval special warfare Navy Photos Retired Navy SEAL Team 2 SEALs Traditions | Posted by Bill McMichael
Retired Master Chief Rudy Boesch earned more than a few laughs Friday during his remarks at the East Coast SEALs’ celebration of the SEALs’ 50th anniversary (the West Coast SEALs marked it two weeks ago), both centered around his post-SEAL Team 2 days.
The 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act helped spark the 1987 formation of U.S. Special Operations Command. That same year, Boesch, coming up on 26 years as a member of SEAL Team 2, was one of three senior military enlisteds called to Coronado to interview with Gen. James Lindsay, the command’s first commander-in-chief — as the position was then known – to become the command’s first senior enlisted adviser.
Retired Master Chief Rudy Boesch at the East Coast SEALs' 50th anniversary celebration Jan. 27 at Joint Expeditionary Base - Little Creek. //U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Meranda Keller
“People were telling me that I would have to study ’cause I might get asked questions like, `Who was the president of Zimbabwe?’” He paused for effect and then added, offhandedly, “To this day, I don’t know who it is.” After the laughter subsided, he added, ”I wasn’t going to study to find out.”
When Boesch’s turn came to be interviewed, he said, “The general asked me how the hell I managed to stay in the military for so long. At that time, I had 42 years in it. Since I had a few more years in the service than he did, I told him that if he hired me, he would find out because he was going to have to do the paperwork to keep me in the service.”
After the laughter subsided, Boesch said, “He thumped me in the chest and hired me right on the spot.”
Boesch’s closing one-liner also drew laughs, but not for a joke the Navy would be pleased to hear expressed in a year following the reversal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays in the military.
“In 2000, I tried out for the first Survivor series on TV, and the rest is history,” Boesch told the crowd. “Some of the people in here have been asking me if I keep in touch with anybody in the Survivor [series].” He paused. “I don’t write to queers. ” He made it clear that he was talking about “homosexuals.”
Deployed sailor: It’s OK to be gay
January 23rd, 2012 | Afghanistan Don't ask Navy Video | Posted by Sam Fellman
With the end of the ban on gays serving openly last year, sailors have been coming forward about their sexual identity in ways large and small to their shipmates. Now, deployed soldiers — and one sailor — at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan have filmed a message that it’s OK to be gay.
“It’s hard being different when you’re young and even when you’re old,” says Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class Erin Jones in the video posted Friday. “But it won’t get better until you accept yourself for who you are.”
The video — uploaded to YouTube by the account intheNarmynow — joins a host of others on the website It Gets Better, which collects video messages of hope for gay and lesbian teens struggling with their identity.
“Bravo!!!” one reviewer wrote.
A gay sailor tells viewers: “It gets better”
October 31st, 2011 | Don't ask Navy Video | Posted by Sam Fellman
A gay sailor tells his personal story as part of a campaign to bolster the self-confidence of gay youth. // Youtube
“Being in the Navy actually has helped me a lot with getting comfortable with who I am,” says Electronics Technician 3rd Class Taylor Short, a 21-year-old sailor who posted videos online this month about being gay in the Navy.
Since the ban on gays serving openly ended on Sept. 19, gay sailors are finding a variety of ways, large and small, to come forward about themselves. A lieutenant married his long-time partner at the stroke of midnight when the law lifted; a seaman posted “I’m gay” on her Facebook page.
Short said in a video that he was already out to many of his shipmates before repeal, adding that, at the time, “no one really cared.” His video was inspired by the It Gets Better project, which showcases testimonial videos that remind gay youths it’s OK to be themselves.
“Don’t be scared to tell people,” Short told his viewers. “People who I never thought I would really be friends with are now my closest friends.”