Nov 03, 2006  |  By: ZACK ROSEN  | COMMENTS     

Equally straightforward and salacious, “Here’s What We’ll Say: Growing Up, Coming Out, and the U.S. Air Force” covers Reichen Lehmkuhl’s pre-fame life, with enough of a political spin to give the work some unexpected heft.

Lehmkuhl is best known for winning season four of CBS’ “The Amazing Race” along with former partner Chip Arndt, before embarking on a brief modeling and acting career and dating recently outed ‘N Sync singer Lance Bass.

The author sparked debate last month when he won a Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award that some thought was undeserved. While Lehmkuhl has no immediate plans to get into politics, he told the Blade that his status as a public figure affords him some political influence and that he hopes the promotion of the book will help bring attention to the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that bars open gays from the armed services.

The first quarter of the book is taken up with a standard description of Lehmkuhl’s childhood and high school experience, but becomes much more interesting with the author’s admission to the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Readers interested in prurient porno-esque military sex scenes will not be disappointed. The accounts of dorm-room threesomes and hotel trysts eventually give way to a committed relationship, all of which run counter to the perception of the military academy as a sex-free zone.

The first sexual incident described in the book is the most controversial.

During “hell week,” a period of freshman hazing, Lehmkuhl is blindfolded and forced out of bed by two masked upperclassmen. After being led into another dorm room, he claims he was punched in the stomach and fellated, all while still blindfolded.

Lehmkuhl acknowledged in an interview with the Blade that although parts of the experience were physically enjoyable, the event constituted an assault. In the book, the author dismisses the idea of going to military authorities about the incident, saying that even seeking counseling could have led to a military discharge.

Although Lehmkuhl says the incident was a sexual assault, the description is worded like a bodice-ripper. 

“During the day, I was freaked out by it, but at night, I would find myself fantasizing about being with them again,” Lehmkuhl writes.

THE BOOK REALLY hits its stride in the final 50 pages where Lehmkuhl, tired of the constant threat of disciplinary action, forms a sort of underground gay task force designed to keep gay cadets out of trouble. Governed by a set of stringent rules, this section is one of the best in the book.

When Lehmkuhl tells the group members “This is not child’s play. These are our lives, our futures, and our careers that we’re holding in each other’s hands,” the reader feels the immediate dangers that a cadet can face when outed. It’s certainly not Hemingway, but it clearly conveys the predicament of gay soldiers.

In the end, Lehmkuhl does an excellent job of pointing out the idiocy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and giving a voice to the experience of the gay cadet. Many readers will be disappointed to find no mention of Lance Bass or life as a gay media star, but given the tell-all nature of “Here’s What We’ll Say,” those are details that could end up in a sequel.

Lehmkuhl will be reading from the book at D.C.’s Lambda Rising on Monday, Nov. 6.