Gay Marines worry about coming out
Marine Cpl. AJ Garcia, a veteran of two deployments in Iraq, plans to tell his fellow Marines that he is gay when official policy changes on Tuesday. He's apprehensive about making his sexual orientation known. / NONE/PHOTO COURTESY OF Cpl. AJ GARCIA
Cpl. AJ Garcia has deployed twice to Iraq, and he wants to make a career out of the Corps.
He's also about to share something with his fellow Marines that he hasn’t told too many people before: He’s gay.
“I'm pretty nervous about it, but it’s for a good cause,” Garcia said.
One of his “greatest fears” is that he will be shunned by the Marines in his unit.
Yet Garcia, like others in the service’s underground gay community, is ready to talk about it, because on Tuesday, the “don't ask, don't tell” policy banning gays from serving openly — enacted in 1993 during the Clinton administration — will be stripped from the military’s rulebook.
The occasion could pass quietly. President Barack Obama and the Defense Department have no plans for news conferences or major addresses, and the Defense Department stopped enforcing the old policy in July.
But for gay Marines, official repeal will be a historic day, comparable to the moment 63 years ago when President Truman ordered the services to end racial segregation.
For straight Marines, this will bring changes, too. Equal treatment will be a must. And yes, some gay Marines will bring dates to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball in November.
“We love. We bleed. We cry. We fight. At the end of the day, we're people, too,” Garcia said. “And we want respect.”
That's something the military must give, now that Obama certified to Congress on July 22 that repealing the ban would not hurt military operations.
Although Commandant Gen. Jim Amos was initially concerned that repeal could affect military readiness, he has since directed his Marines to treat all peers, regardless of their sexual orientation, with “dignity and respect.”
Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Mike Barrett eased the concerns of many gay Marines when, in June, he bluntly told a room full of leathernecks that anyone ticked off about the change needs to “get over it.”
“Marines have received their orders, and I am confident and trust that they will faithfully carry them out,” Barrett told Marine Corps Times. Although optimistic, gay Marines said some problems are inevitable. After all, the policy runs counter to deeply held beliefs of some Marines — and counter to some deep-seated cultural traits that have pervaded the Corps at large.
Last year, when the Defense Department surveyed troops on possible repeal, the Corps, more than any other service, was the most opposed to change.
Even with repeal days away, every gay Marine interviewed for this story, with the exception of Garcia, would speak only on the condition of anonymity.
As such, each has been identified using a false first name. Some agonized over this decision but ultimately decided that outing themselves now could hurt their careers. They worry commanders will comply with the repeal — but reluctantly.
Uber-warriors
Marines’ strong opposition to repeal could be fueled by a culture built on a rigid “warrior ethos,” said Tammy Schultz, a professor at the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Va.
She is co-editing a forthcoming collection of essays written by gay and straight service members titled “The End of Don't Ask, Don't Tell: The Impact in Personal Essays & Studies” and published by the Marine Corps University Press.
“Marines have almost an uber-warrior mindset,” said Schultz, who is gay . “The commandant has even spoke of this. They recruit based on that warrior ethos. There’s the perception, in many cases wrongly, that homosexuals may display more effeminate qualities that may run counter to that warrior ethos.”
Mark, a former enlisted Marine who is now attending the Naval Academy and working to become a Marine officer, said that although most will meet the commandant's expectations, there will be some who won’t.
“I feel like you just can't beat the camaraderie in the Marine Corps,” he said. “But with that, comes the whole homophobic attitude.”
The message of enforcement needs to be clear from the top down, said Jeff, a captain and company commander in an infantry battalion at Camp Pendleton, Calif., who is gay. He recently watched his battalion sergeant major use gay slurs in a briefing with staff noncommissioned officers and junior officers.
“Every staff NCO in the room and potentially even junior officers could have gone out the next day, said something like that in front of their Marines and say, ‘I was just following the example of the battalion sergeant major,’ ” Jeff said.
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