Another heartbreaking example of the cruelty of DADT

One thing that is soberingly obvious about the notorious anti-gay rule in the US Military is how false its very naming is. You don’t have to tell to be persecuted – and what’s more, the rule itself has the added result of protecting the bigots who torment their homosexual comrades. Joseph Rocha, a proud American Navy soldier who placed his duties and service in higher priority than his personal life and well-being, relates his somber experiences as a gay man forced to serve in an intolerant establishment in this depressing report.

I was 18 years old when I landed in the kingdom of Bahrain, off the coast of Saudi Arabia, in the winter of 2005. It was the first time I'd ever left the continental United States. My joints ached after more than 24 hours of travel, but I knew that a new life of service and adventure awaited me on the other side of that aircraft door.

This was the day I had been dreaming about since I'd enlisted in the Navy a few months before, on my birthday. I loved my country, and I knew that I was ready to prove myself in action.

I also knew that I was gay.

However, I chose to put service above my personal life. My understanding of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was that if I kept quiet about my sexuality and didn't break any rules, I would face no punishment. I was wrong.

Once I joined the Navy, I was tormented by my chief and fellow sailors, physically and emotionally, for being gay. The irony of "don't ask, don't tell" is that it protects bigots and punishes gays who comply. Now, after a Youth Radio investigation of the abuses I suffered, the chief of naval operations ordered a thorough study of how the Navy handled the situation and is currently reviewing the document. I'm hopeful that the case will be reopened and top leadership finally held accountable for the lives they have ruined.

[…]

Shop talk in the unit revolved around sex, either the prostitute-filled parties of days past or the escapades my comrades looked forward to. They interpreted my silence and total lack of interest as an admission of homosexuality. My higher-ups seemed to think that gave them the right to bind me to chairs, ridicule me, hose me down and lock me in a feces-filled dog kennel.

I can't say for certain when the abuse started or when it stopped. Now, several years removed from those days in Bahrain, it blends together in my mind as a 28-month nightmare.

[…]

In the course of that investigation, the Navy decided to charge my best friend, Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Valdivia, a 27-year-old Sailor of the Year and second in command of my unit, for failing to put an end to my chief's tyranny. The idea that she could have stopped the abuse is, to me, unfair and unreasonable. The Navy itself failed to stop him.

Val, as I called her, was set to return home when she was told of the charges and that she wouldn't be leaving Bahrain as planned. She was afraid that she would never see the United States again. My mentor ended up taking her life.

The full account is much longer still, spanning two full pages, and I encourage anyone who’s made it this far to go and read it. This isn’t light-hearted, happy reading – it’s depressing and enraging. Which is exactly why it needs to be read, seeing as it’s dead real. This intolerable suffering happens each and every day, to what must be thousands upon thousands of brave, honorable and dignified soldiers who just want to serve their country, and instead end up bullied, humiliated and dejected – or worse, as happened with Petty Officer 1^st Class Jennifer Valdivia.

Truly, these stories break my heart. But such sadness is soon replaced with indignation and anger when I realize that all this is so easily fucking preventable. Seriously – one lazy flick of Obama’s writing wrist, and bam, DADT goes out the window.

Obama, fuckin’ DO IT ALREADY. What the hell could he possibly be waiting for? This tears me up to no end. People – good, decent, loyal, honorable, heroic people – are suffering for absolutely no reason other than that there’s a law that condones hate crimes against gays and that protects the sorry assholes who perpetrate such intimidation. There are no deeper issues at play here: one stupid law, one signed piece of paper to end it. Case closed.

Technorati tags: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell · DADT · Navy · Joseph Rocha · gay · gays · injustices · cruelty