TPM Editor’s Blog

Gays Out of the Military

Apropos of our earlier post on whether there are gays in the SEALs and special forces generally, TPM Reader MT sends in the following …

My wife had a friend in college who was ex-Navy, but was generally pretty vague about what he did in the service. He was also pretty vague about the circumstances of his leaving the service (was he just done, or was he kicked out?), but he was gay and out. Well, as out as a fairly private person in 1990s Mississippi would be. Anyway, their town had just one gay bar, and there was a rash of gay bashings happening. The gang was making plans one Friday night, and he demurred, saying “I think I’m going to go downtown tonight.”
The next day, campus was buzzing about the six frat guys that had ended up in the hospital after a “fight” outside the gay bar. The lone assailant was not named or charged. When asked what he did that night, my wife’s friend just said, “Walked a few friends home.”

That’s all just to say that, yes, there are and have been gay SEALs.

Josh Marshall

Josh Marshall is editor and publisher of TalkingPointsMemo.com.

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