PBS is running a 10-hour documentary mini-series, Carrier, about life aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.
Episode 3, Super Secrets, which aired Friday and is being released online today, includes interviews with gay and lesbian servicemembers. One of them, quartermaster third class petty officer Brian Downey who served in the navigation department of the Nimitz, was interviewed by Andy Towle:
How do you feel about the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy in general?
In this day and age and the way things are changing, if they drop it I don’t see that it would be a big deal for anybody. People know each other on the ship. And that’s just in the little community itself. If they were to drop the policy I’m sure it wouldn’t cause much of a security risk for anybody. It’s always been around — there have always been people in the military that have served that are gay. And people that have been in great positions — people that are in very high positions — and if it were dropped I’m sure it wouldn’t be a big deal. We’re not here to freak you out, we’re here to try to do something with you – we need to do our job and do it well. We just happen to be a little different — just like blacks were different, just like women were different. Well before those times there were gays in the military. I think it would be a very big social uplifting, an awakening for people.
Meanwhile, SLDN (Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a leading policy organization dedicated to ending discrimination against and harassment of military personnel affected by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”) is in the middle of a six city western tour to highlight efforts to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Tonight there’s an SLDN reception on the Vegas Strip at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada at 6 p.m.