December 20, 2002
Serving the Carolinas’ Gay & Lesbian Communities Since 1979
Volume 23, Number 26
Happy HoUdays and a Joyous l\iew Yearl '‘ OpHon: Toward a Post-Gay World, p.14
The
“
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Year in Review:
. .
: /•: |p
Normalization
By Bob Roehr ,1 ; ; >*r, ^ ~
Contributing Writer * - , v
t - I he year saw many small steps and consolida
tion of social and legal gains for the GLBT com
munity across the country. While there were dis
appointments, there were no serious setbacks.
Wrapping up the year was an early Christmas
present, when, on December 17, the New York
legislature passed a gay rights bill. It ended a
' thirty year struggle to pass the measure and
makes New York the thirteenth state to offer such
basic protections to its citizens.
PresidemrGeorge Bush continued to appoint *
, modest numbers of openly gay people to posi
tions within the administration and to groups
• such as the Presidential Advisory Council on
HIV/AIDS. The most visible appointee, Scott
Evertz, was shuffled out of the "AIDS Czar"
office, replaced by another openly gay man, Joe
O'Neill, a physician and acknowledged master
■of federal AIDS programs.
-; Mary Matalin is perhaps the gay community's
most influential ally within the White House.
Unfortunately, she announced that she is step
ping down from her position as special assistant
to Vice President Dick Chaney at the end of the
year.
tn June, the President signed the Mychal judge
Act, making it easier for beneficiaries of public
safety officefs killed in the line of duty to collect
a $250,000 federal death benefit^ It was named
after the gay priest killed in the September 11 ter
rorist attack on the World Trade Center. It is
believed to be the first time that the survivor of a
gay partnership has become eligible to receive a
federal benefit.
£ New leaders at the top of NIH, CDC, and FDA
i. have impressed members of the community as
being extremely competent and prepared to deal
with the community's concerns in a fair manner.
But administration support for abstinence only
sex education, the disappearance of information
on condoms at the CDC website, and audits of
| AIDS organizations has fueled fears that social .
conservatives are calling the shots on these,
issues.
The Pentagon's antigay policy' known as :|
| "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" remains all too much in j
K; effect. The latest round of expulsions of Arabic
speakers — in light of the military's need for the f
likely war in Iraq and in the fight against terror
contined on page 24
IF •' -I— 4. ^
At the Center of the Fury
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
Strikes at the Defense
Language Institute
By Bob Roehr
Contributing Writer
The utter foolishness of the
Pentagon's antigay policy of
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was
demonstrated anew when seven
language specialists recently were
booted out of the prestigious
Defense Language Institute (DLI)
in Monterrey, California. These
folks weren't studying your high
school French or Spanish but diffi
cult languages like Arabic, Korean,
Mandarin (Chinese) and Farsi,
where training is intense, six hours
a day in the classroom, and lasts
more than a year.
Last year me /Army was anie to
fill only half of its 84 positions for
Arabic translators, according to a
report by the General Accounting
Office, the federal government's
investigati, e arm.
As a result, intercepted mes
sages and other intelligence infor
mation often are not translated or
analyzed on a timely basis.
That can be fatal when informa
tion is the foundation of modem
security.
uic: UOUlcHgt'5 uiuu^lll dll
unusual amount of media cover
age and a crescendo of editorials
calling for a change in the policy.
At the center of it all were Alastair
Gamble and Rob Hicks, stoking
the coverage with their stories. Bob
Roehr sat down with the pair for
an extended and candid interview.
The dark-haired Hicks, 28, grew
up in Yampa, a very small town in
northwestern Colorado.
He bounced around colleges,
coming out in the process, and left
just before completing his degree
when relationship problems with
another man "crashed down
around me."
With $37,000 in student loans
hang.ng over his head, the Army's
repayment program for a six-year
enlistment sounded like a good
alternative to "fifteen years of con
stant bill paying." Hicks had tested
well for languages and the guaran
tee of further training would give
Alastair Gamble and Rob Hicks
Photo by Bob Roehr
him more thanr enough credits to
get his college degree. "It was good
for me all around."
"The more I was in the military,
the more I fit into the discipline
and the integrity of the life, but I
went back into the closet." He did
n't find it particularly difficult,
"I've never been the most demon
strative person in the world."
Being older, most people in train
ing units like DLI are between 18
and 22, "I didn't worry about my
personal life, 1 was more interested
in my military career. I just worked
my butt off." Learning Korean
gave him plenty to work on.
Gamble, 24, grew up in Austin,
Texas, where his mom taught
English at the University.
They later migrated to Virginia
Tech, then Alastair took off for col
lege at Emory University in
Atlanta.
He did some "experimenting"
with men, in fact it became a regu
lar pattern, but there were no real
relationships and he didn't come
out to his family.
At the same time, he began "get
ting fiercely interested in joining
the military. Unfortunately I
bought into the belief that the two
were mutually exclusive."
Repressing those feelings came
easy enough, especially when one
is going through basic training and
then the rigors of learning Arabic.
He says, "I think I just buried
myself in my studies." \
Love And Marriage
"We actually met at the gym, as
stereotypical as that sounds," says
Hicks. "We just connected. He did
n't think that I was gay. So I invit
ed him out to dinner." It was
August 17, 2001. "We went for
pizza. And he wouldn't talk to me.
I had this one sided conversation.
And he wouldn't eat, so I felt
guilty eating and I ate only one
piece of pizza."
Gamble says he was really
uncomfortable, "This was the first
time that I was dealing with a sol
dier at my own level who was gay,
and I was going out with him. I
had gone out on dates before but it
was always with civilians. I was
very nervous about the level of dis
closure."
"It finally came down to the
point where I said to myself, 'fuck
it,' and asked him, 'How many
relationships have you been in?"
says Hicks. "He kind of opened up
a little bit after that."
Their first kiss came on the fol
lowing date, walking on the beach
on Monterrey Bay at night. Within
a month they had fallen into a
daily routine beginning with a 4:40
AM workout, their separate classes
during the day, and three hours of
study and relaxation, mainly in
Rob's room until taps at 9:00 PM.
confined on page 24