Navy’s first openly gay SEAL builds his life anew.

[marylander1940]

http://imgick.al.com/home/bama-media/width960/img/alphotos/photo/2015/03/24/-72d4b61d8cfcfcfc.jpg

 

For years, Brett Jones lived a double life. He was a Navy SEAL, a muscular M-60 gunner trained to kill and survive in enemy territory. He was also gay.

 

He held his secret close, so close that his SEAL teammates – his closest friends – never suspected. Jones was careful to introduce his male lover, a Navy sailor, as his roommate. He persuaded an attractive friend to pose as his girlfriend whenever the SEALs threw parties.

 

But one day in 2002, Jones accidentally outed himself. He left an “I love you” phone message for his lover – a stupid mistake, he realized the instant he hung up.

 

A sailor heard it and turned him in. The Navy launched an investigation designed to dishonorably discharge him.

 

That mistake led Jones here, to the deeply conservative Bible Belt country of north Alabama, to a brick ranch home on Drury Lane he shares with his husband, Jason White, a burly former police detective and self-professed country boy raised in northern Alabama. The two men are parents to Ethan, a precocious 13-year-old known in the flat, clay and pine country as the only kid in school with two gay dads.

 

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article22780368.html

 

http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/navys-first-openly-gay-seal-rebuilding-his-life-in-bible-belt/

 

http://www.sealtwo.org/page02/BretJones.jpg

 

http://media.al.com/opinion/photo/pride-coverjpg-229f039445b1edaa.jpg

[tyro]

I hope he and his hubby live long, happy lives together with their son.

T

PS The Miami Herald article includes photos of Brett and Jason. They have nowhere NEAR the same body type and it hasn't stopped them from being together. So...for all y'all who play the I-don't-like-the-ones-who-look-like-me game, rest assured that we are all allowed to like -- and have -- what we like.

[+ WilliamM]

I was still in the closet when I was drafted away back in 1967. By the time I got to Vietnam a year later I had a few gay friends, very few. Man, I was far more upset about the necessity of hiding than the possibility of getting shot. I mentioned Vietnam before on this forum. Glad I finally wrote about being in the military before Stonewall.

[marylander1940]

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