Posted on 10/23/2006 9:35:24 PM PDT by newzjunkey
Reichen Lehmkuhl is perhaps best known for dating pop star Lance Bass of N'Sync fame or winning a $1 million on the adventure reality show "The Amazing Race." But before Lehmkuhl's name hit celebrity magazines, he was an Air Force captain living with a secret: He is gay...
But Lehmkuhl said when he entered the Air Force Academy, he was living with the secret of his sexuality.
"And I remember the panic that came over me at that moment realizing, 'What am I going to do? Am I going to be able to change this? How can I admit this?' " he said...
While the 1993 "don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibited military personnel to question fellow soldiers about their sexual orientation, Lehmkuhl said it offered little protection for a gay captain hoping to maintain his privacy and his dignity.
"There was definitely an institutionalized acceptance of people being homophobic and telling gay jokes and making homophobic remarks -- really, really mean homophobic remarks to the point of, 'Kill gay people,' " he said.
Speculation grew about Lehmkuhl"s sexual orientation until one night, when he said he was sent a message. He said he was sexually assaulted by the people he served beside everyday.
"A bag was put over my head," he said. "I was stripped of my clothes. I was forced to do things sexually with two other male cadets."
Lehmkuhl said that night he hit rock bottom and considered ending his life.
"That's when you start having suicidal thoughts, and that's when you start saying, 'Oh my God. I am so stuck in this situation. I can't go to anyone,' " he said.
He kept silent about the incident, and served out his commitment to the Air Force.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I think dating an Nsync guy is his low point.
... what?
Admitting to dating an NStync-er should be rock-bottom...
Make sure you rush out and buy Justin Timberlakes new CD too!
In my time, this was called "SERE".
Methinks it wasn't as much of a secret as he thought it was.
Don't park below his 7th story condo.
Because truth is stranger than fiction, Barney Frank was his nominating sponsor for the Air Force Academy.
Not sure about the credibility here. Surely, if true, he should be naming-names.
I tend to doubt anything that comes out of the mouth of a gay person in the military. I just don't trust them.
The guys I have worked with in my 13 or so years have always had a highly-developed "gay-dar." We never had any problem figuring out who was a buggerer...however, I don't ever recall anyone doing much about the ones in our midst until such a time when the gay ones would do something to expose themselves.
Live and let live is alive and well in the USAF...methinks the little buggerer let on a lot more than he wishes to admit.
I think the N'Stync CDs on his shelf would have been the first clue.
Good point.
Perversion isn't dignified, "captain"
Or maybe the poster of Lance Bass in a Speedo above his bunk.
All I can say on this issue, is that the gay men that I have worked with love a man in uniform.
What about the PRIVACY of the men he shared the showers with? That lie about "homosexuals aren't attracted to heterosexuals" doesn't hold water. Same sex perverts have been caught photographing members of the same sex in dressing rooms and locker rooms and showers at health clubs to an extent that gyms in many nations have adopted policies of banning the use of cell phones in such locations less a homosexual peeping tom transmit photos from the PRIVATE room.
Were these other cadets also gay? If they were all engaging in sex acts together, that would make them homosexuals.
Unless that "sexual thing" was watching porn in the rec hall with clothes on and the crowd cracking jokes.
What details are being omitted?
If they really wanted to punish him, they could have forced him to have sex with women.
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