Don’t ask

LGBT leaders push for next ship to be named Harvey Milk

By Jacqueline Klimas on April 24, 2012 Don't ask, don't tell, Navy, Navy secretary

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…

Rudy's one-liners

By Bill McMichael on January 27, 2012 Don't ask, Historical, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek - Fort Story, Naval special warfare, Navy, Photos, Retired Navy, SEAL Team 2, SEALs, Traditions

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…

Deployed sailor: It’s OK to be gay

By Sam Fellman on January 23, 2012 Afghanistan, Don't ask, Navy, Video

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_QpSsvO7-I[/youtube] 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…

A gay sailor tells viewers: "It gets better"

By Sam Fellman on October 31, 2011 Don't ask, Navy, Video

“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…

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