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 ...
Don't they do worse things with each other without the bags over their heads?
If it's his *private* life, why didn't it stay that way? Makes me think it wasn't so private, and that's a big part of the problem; they don't keep it that way. If what they do in private is nobody else's business, don't tell me about it then.
"Don't they do worse things with each other without the bags over their heads?"
He's probably lying/exaggerating for effect.
But if he's not, it's horrible to suggest forced sex is okay because of what someone might do consensually. Imagine if a similar statement were made when a woman was raped.
I've known some real "warriors" (presumably heterosexual) in the military who had people try to hang a "queer" label on them. They didn't whine about it, or get mad: they got even. Then they got the one thing this guy will never have, respect.
"Lehmkuhl now hopes his story will help prompt the military to take a more critical look at the policy on gays a policy, he said, that is simply failing."
I agree with him on this one point. I was in at the time that they instituted the don't ask, don't tell policy. Being in the position of a single soldier having to share a public shower with every other person of your gender living in the barracks under that policy is an uncomfortable, or worse, threatening place to be.
The policy is a failure and they should go back to the old one to protect the troops so they don't have to literally live with a sexual threat from homosexual troops, percieved or real. It's one thing to walk around in public fully clothed and get admired by the same sex. It's quite another story in a shower that is empty save you and the admirer.
Did that mean that homosexuals were not in the military prior to the new policy? No. However, it at least afforded some protection and a clear statement that the behavior was not welcome.
The only other choice is complete "openness" and "segregation" in the barracks and any other circumstance that would cause sexual tension. For instance homosexual troops should not serve in combat units much like the segregation of male/female troops. However, everytime the segregation option is fielded to the gay agenda they soundly renounce it. One doesn't even need to wonder why.
So he was a captain when he was a cadet at the Academy? That's what the story seems to try to suggest.
Case in point, Lance Bass...and these guys
If you read a little closer (not too close, though...,) you'll see that it suggests he was molested/assaulted while at the Academy...
The only conclusion that can be drawn from this story is that the writer was an incompetent propagandist with an agenda.
We have a friend who was in the Army and one night some gay guy started messing with him while he was asleep.The other soldiers had to pull this friend of ours off the guy because he was going to beat him to death.Were in our 50's so it hasn't been too long ago. Yea I guess it was about 30 years ago. Dang I just made myself feel so so old.
I think it's much more likely that a guy gay will try to get something going with a straight guy than vice versa. As for putting a bag over his head and all that . . . I don't believe a word of it. Wishful thinking, probably. Gay men seem to have a panting obsession with being raped and abused by other men. Seems to go with the territory.
I agree...it's poorly written. But there is NO way he could have been a Captain before or while a cadet...trust me (unless he was a Cadet Captain, but I don't think the Academy uses those ranks for their upperclass cadets...)
Sounds like they had two more homosexuals in the Academy.
LOL! His latest musical efforts could be the worst crap I have ever heard.
My kids even make fun of it.
A First-Class Cadet (senior) will have one of the following ranks:
Cadet/Second Lieutanant
Cadet/First Lieutenant
Cadet/Captain
Cadet/Major
Cadet/Lieutenant Colonel
Cadet/Colonel
This guy was also presented as "married" to his race (and life ) partner. The marriage didn't last, as it was over before the show completed airing.
Shows how much I know about the Academy...I was in ROTC.
Who the Ex-Captain's or the N'Sync guy? And why?
I asked my father about homosexuals in the Army when he served in WWII. He said that most of the overt or effeminate ones did not make it through basic training; not that anyone tormented them - basic in that time was just serious and hard business. . then, after they left for N. Africa, there wasn't much time for any frivolous considerations. Simply staying alive through the battles there and then boarding ship for Sicily, Italy and on to Germany with the tough combat for every inch in those places - stopping Hitler and ramming it down the Panzer Divisions throats (not an easy job, incidentally) was the daily reality of combat. They were brothers and they weren't abusing or humiliating each other; I think a lot of this crap is very little more than too many people having way too much coddling by mama and way too much time on their hands to contemplate their belly buttons.
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