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Re: Of Country, Duty, Honor!
I'd like to share with you my reaction/response to a rather
thoughtful/heartening gesture of recognition and support by
a friend with whom I've often not seen eye to eye on gay
issues. And yet ... what d'ya know! :-)
Vinh
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Forwarded message:
Subject: Re: Of Country, Duty, Honor!
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 08:08:24 -0500 (EST)
Sender: <email>
> Hi there Uvies,
>
> With a heavy heart, I've tendered my resignation from the
> USAF effective the 15th of this month. It has been an
> exciting career with things I have seen and exciting
> "stuffs" I were allowed to do which few of my equals
> in the civilian world could ever dream of. I have loved
> that coat of arms and the profession that places
> country, duty, and honor at the top of one's priority.
>
> Yet, with all my respects to Vinh, and to a dear gay professor
> who has influenced my entire adulthood, I found that
> I could no longer serve faithfully in
> a military where its policy toward the homosexual
> members of the society is so discriminatory, so
> opposed to the very tenets of equality, justice, and
> democracy which I had sworn to defend - to be called
> upon to place my life in harms way if needed.
>
> I have seen, and knew gay people who were ceremoniously,
> and unceremoniously gagged, prosecuted, and professionally
> destroyed for being gay in the military.
> It is so ironic that honorable, competent, and professional
> gay members of the military are systematically gagged
> into silence under a policy and a military justice system
> which has zero tolerance for them. There is no "country"
> in arbitrarily denying "inallienable rights" everybody
> enjoys to a "selected" group of the people! "Honor" was
> lost when the very tenets of the constitution were
> trampled upon in the name of "morale", "cohesiveness",
> and "unity". I'm struggling with a
> "duty" where in executing the orders of the day means
> completely destroying the career and life of another
> officer, or enlisted member, on the account that he/she
> is gay! To paraphrase a battle cry for civil rights
> during that dark racist time of this country, "Gays are
> human, too!"
>
> It's been a difficult personal
> dilema! To serve faithfully as an officer and be part
> of the mindless machinery against gay members of the profession or
> to ignore "legal policies and orders" and be an unfaithful
> officer to the coat of arms which I'm a member!
>
> In the end, the only acceptable choice is to resign from
> the very service I have loved since becoming an adult. I no longer
> an officer of the USAF, but I think the
> choice will allow me to go on with life without compromising
> my core of personal values.
>
> Tha^n
>
> Ba?o
Dear anh Ba?o and Uvvies,
I was in turn greatly surprised, somewhat baffled, and then
deeply touched as well as appreciative of anh Ba?o's recent
announcement to the list about his resignation from USAF on
account of the long-standing discrimination against gays in
the military. This is indeed an extraordinary event, about
which I feel compelled to "open my toady mouth" and utter a
few croaking words of praise and gratitude before this open
forum.
I was greatly surprised by the rationale given to anh Ba?o's
decision, and I was indeed baffled by why a staunch defender
of the great American experience like anh Ba?o has proven to
be not only in words on this list but also in deeds through
his proud service in USAF would take up an old lost cause for
which even gay militants have given up hope (at least in the
forseeable future) in view of the recent and increasing shift
to the right in American politics. But knowing from years of
spirited yet cordial debate with him, I trust anh Ba?o as an
honorable and principled man of his words (clashing as they
have at times been with mine), and I'm therefore all the more
deeply touched by the tribute he has graciously paid to gay
people in general who are suffering the injustice of a system
with which he has come to part ways on principle, and to the
few particular gay people, among whom I'm quite honored to be
mentioned by name, who has made some impact on his thinking
as he has come to know them better as real individuals who
are more than a part of that label so often stigmatized by
a largely ignorant and misguided society. And I'm deeply
appreciative of anh Ba?o's principled act of protest, which
sure is more substantial and goes further than anything an
interested party like myself could do on my own behalf, not
in any interest of his own, but quite on the contrary, in
the name of greater justice and the common good of a free
and fair society of equals. For that, I salute him, with
admiration and appreciation from the bottom of my heart.
If only there can be more people like anh Ba?o, then the
world will surely become a much "kinder & gentler" place
for gay people to live along with everybody else.
In all fairness, I'm somewhat embarassed by my initial
surprise because I could never expect something like this
to transpire. I have felt that ever since the melodramatic
public disclosure of my sexual orientation before this list
some three years ago, I have taken up for myself the rather
thankless role of maverick residential queer on Open Forum.
And many battles of words and ideas have I felt compelled
to fight on behalf of a marginalized identity which I've
publicly taken up as mine own, and in my overwrought zeal
for self-defense, I've come to antagonize and alienate to
various degrees no few people here, most notably and regret-
tably Cao Thanh Huy, venerable founder of this Open Forum,
a much admired peer and colleague, and a long-standing friend,
who left this group in a huff in the wake of a bloody row over
a gay-related topic almost a year ago. I stayed on but have
chosen to become a rather inactive member of this list, partly
in atonement of my damaging verbal excesses, and partly out
of a sense of self-induced alienation as a kind of persona
non gratta whose voice would fall on shut ears. As if in the
capacity of a self-appointed residential queer propagandist
(if not outright provocateur) I merely dropped in now and then
to pass along a piece of news or opinion about gays, and would
rarely follow up on any topic, in radical departure from the
days when I used to hold the undisputed distinction of the
most indiscriminately verbose and garrulous contributor to
the list. I don't expect much in terms of reaction, either
positive or negative, from Open Forum, and I content myself
with keeping afloat awareness of an unpopular topic, while
keeping in touch with old friends who have come to know and
accept my quirks so as not to take offense at them. I'm most
grateful for the understanding and friendship that many on
Open Forum have continued to extend to me in spite of my
once abrasive and thereafter indifferent manners and action.
I'm heartened by the open-mindedness of Uvvies, and I'm quite
appreciative of many who have given friendly support to me and
the gay cause I champion (almost in spite of myself, given my
distaste for taking on more responsibilities than I can handle!)
Aside from those whose circumstances have yet to allow me to
recognize by name, I would like to acknowledge the friendship
and supportive gestures of Trang & DDu+'c (whose unexpected jest
by means of a press release about the inaugural issue of the
Vietnamese gay publication Doi Dien/Face to Face caused me to
come out on Open Forum; and ever since we've become good friends
in the wake of all that, imagine my shock and appreciation to
learn that he used to work for Bob Dornan whose notoriously
inflamatory anti-gay rhetorics have been the stuffs of national
legends!), Ky` Anh (whose unstinting support has been vital to
the creation and sustenance of the VN-GBLF netlist for/about
Vietnamese lesbigays & friends), anh Lu+o+ng and Trung (who,
among other appreciable things, once came to my rescue in an
ugly row I had misguidedly picked with the bigoted as well as
idiotic thugs on SCV), and DDa(ng (who has admirably overcome
his professed homophobia, if not yet his heterosexism when he
good-naturedly suggested on occasions that I should "try it
with a woman" sometimes, to become an understanding friend who
can pend a supportive ear to my woeful boyfriend, or rather my
lack of boyfriend, problems! :-)). And now I would like to
add anh Ba?o to that list, in recognition of the gracious
tribute he has paid to discriminated gay people, and the great
personal honor he has accorded me, in sharing with us on Open
Forum the rationale for his recent decision to resign from USAF.
May the future bring you much personal as well as professional
success, satisfaction and happiness as a civilian in the work
force.
Warmest season's greetings to you and to all,
Vinh
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