Nov 21, 2003  |  By: JOE CREA  | COMMENTS     

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Thirty-one gay graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy formally asked their alma mater on Veteran’s Day to recognize a new gay alumni group there, marking the first time such a move has been attempted at a U.S. military academy.

The veterans said they feel detached from the academy and want to support gay and lesbian midshipmen currently serving in the Navy under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Jeff Petrie, chapter president of the newly formed United States Naval Academy Out, said he hopes the chapter will afford gay alumni a chance to reconnect with the academy. The 31 founding members graduated between 1958-1996, and none is on active duty.

“Our objective is to reconnect with our school in a positive way,” Petrie said. “We are a significant group of alumni who feel disassociated with our fellow alums. This will create a comfortable avenue for us to reconnect with our alma mater.”

Petrie said that the chapter would allow both gay and straight veterans to join.

Skid Heyworth, a spokesperson for the 50,000-member Naval Academy alumni association, said that USNA Out’s request is being processed and the application is pending. The association’s board of trustees could take up the issue at its annual meeting on Dec. 5.

According to Heyworth, the alumni association, a nonprofit with no direct ties to the military, has received “quite a bit of e-mail” opposing the proposed gay chapter.

Aaron C. Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said that if the application is approved it would mark a symbolic recognition of the estimated 1 million gay veterans.

“This is not the big grand slam [lifting of the ban on gays in the military], but if your think about the progress toward lifting the ban in small steps, this would be a tremendously important form of recognition,” Belkin said.

Petrie decided to propose USNA Out’s application to the Naval Academy after a series of gay rights advances this year. He noted that 24 other nations have dropped a ban on gays serving openly in the military and that American service members in Iraq and Afghanistan are serving alongside gay troops from other nations. He added that a friend of his died in a plane crash on April 9 in Iraq.

“Life is short, and there’s no time like the present,” Petrie said. “Another reason I wanted to start the group is that ever since the Supreme Court [Texas sodomy] ruling, I’ve even been starting to feel some patriotism again, after not feeling it for some time. On the day of the ruling, they lowered the rainbow flag in the Castro and put up the Stars and Stripes.”

Another factor that inspired Petrie to pursue recognition for the gay alumni is that the official Naval Academy alumni group includes chapters devoted to special interests of members, including a group for alumni who own recreational vehicles.

“That really opened the door for us,” Petrie said.

‘Horrific conversations’
Petrie graduated from the Navy in 1989 and initially worked as an assistant varsity gymnastics coach in the Navy. He then went on to surface warfare school and was deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1992 to work on the USS Kirk where he and a team went on “diplomatic missions” to various Gulf nations that were interested in exploring a friendship with the United States after the Persian Gulf War.

He left the Navy just prior to the implementation of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Typically, Naval Academy graduates are required to serve a minimum of five years in the Navy but since Petrie was working on a unit being decommissioned, he was allowed to leave early without completing his five-year tenure.

During his tenure with the Navy, Petrie said he heard “some pretty horrific conversations” about gays.

“I was there in the late ‘80s when AIDS was in the news,” Petrie said. “People would talk about fags getting what they deserved. I remember my commander leading one conversation drenched with hate about gays. Another frequent comment I heard was that all gay people should be shot.”

Petrie said he did not visit his alma mater when he was in town last week to file the chapter’s application.

“I still love that school, but I don’t feel very comfortable walking around there,” he said.

Petrie, an Oregon native, now works as a publications editor and events coordinator for the Legion of Honor Art Museum in San Francisco.