She used the occasion to harangue the assembled guests, which included three O-6s and an Admiral. By her measure, society in general and the USN in particular were great oppressors. She charged that for years she was prevented from revealing her deep love for another babe, whom she presented on stage. (Not bad looking BTW). She went on for a few more minutes before I decided I had way more than enough.
I didn't say anything, just got up and left. All eyes were on me. I was sure she would shout something to me, but she did not. That was a moment of good judgment on her part.
My blood still boils over this almost 20 years later. Gotta run now.
Whatever else she was, she was disrespectful to the law and disrespectful to what was likely a majority of her immediate peers, because with or without DADT, her self-imposed DADT had in fact worked in her case, for her and for the Navy, because while she practiced DADT by choice, so did her peers, by not “outing her” because possibly on some professional level she had earned their respect, in spite of what most of them knew about her personal life. They hadn’t made it an issue because she hadn’t made it an issue.
Then she used her retirement party to stand up and trash a system that I believe had worked in her favor.
Up until the very last minute, her “sexuality” was not an issue to most of those around her, until she, she herself had to finally make it an issue.
I think she dishonored her own service.