Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 9:46 pm. 0 comments
Lieutenant Colonel Victor Fehrenbach is an 18-year veteran of the United States Air Force. As a flight weapons system operator he has flown 2,180 hours, including 488 combat hours in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo. On September 11, 2001 he was chosen to patrol the skies above Washington, DC while Dick Cheney and Condi Rice huddled in a bunker below.
In the course of his career, Fehrenbach has earned over 30 awards and medals including nine air medals, one of them for heroism. As a flight instructor he has passed on his knowledge and experience to over 300 Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force officers. He wants to be deployed again to combat, but one thing stands in the way. Lt. Col. Fehrenbach is openly gay.
In September 2008, after a civilian acquaintance outed him, Fehrenbach was informed he was to be discharged under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” anti-gay policy. His first instinct was to submit quietly, even though he’s only two years away from retirement with full pension.
With encouragement from five of his fellow officers, he decided to fight, in the hope that President Obama would deliver on campaign promises to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The policy remains in place, however, and over 200 officers have been discharged just since Obama’s inauguration.
Fehrenbach, 39, is the son of Air Force parents. His family supports his decision to fight his discharge. As his sister, also a veteran, says, “This is the only thing he’s ever known in life. It’s all he’s ever wanted to do.”
Fehrenbach has been called the “$25 Million Aviator” because that is the estimated investment from US taxpayers to develop and train him. The Air Force seems determined to throw that investment, and much more, away.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 3:18 pm. 0 comments
Renowned Southern writer Reynolds Price (A Long and Happy Life. The Tongues of Angels, Kate Vaiden) has not exactly been in the closet. In 1958 he dodged military service by checking the “homosexual” box. In 2000 he boldly wrote the foreword for the reissue of Larry Kramer’s 1978 chronicle of New York, Faggots. Now, in the third segment of his autobiography, Ardent Desires, he goes into detail about what it was like to be queer (to use his term) in the middle of the twentieth century. Read more here and here
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 9:01 am. 0 comments
DJ/MTV personality Ruby Rose, visiting Los Angeles for Fashion Week, knows what the paparazzi like. The 23-year-old MTV VJ, who came out when she was 12, continued her string of public kisses with Australian supermodels Myf Shepherd and Catherine McNeil. Read More
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 8:09 am. 0 comments
Not that he would ever ask such a question, but it’s interesting to fantasize about isn’t it? In a thought-provoking article, pastor Ron Hamman redefines the meaning of homosexual, sodomy, nature, sin, know, perversion, violence, and acceptance. You be the judge. Read More
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 5:05 pm. 0 comments
Glasgow Labour Council leader Stephen Purcell is on the ascent from his local base of support to a national role. In 1996 at age 23 he became one of the youngest-ever councillors and just four years later was leader of the city. In 2006 he announced he was gay, but the news hasn’t dimmed his political star. Recently, he played a key role in bringing the 2014 Commonwealth Games to Glasgow. Read More
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 7:49 am. 0 comments
What’s it like to be the gay frontman in a band with three straight boys? Ask Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, who played a sold-out gig at New York’s Town Hall Thursday night, accompanied by the all-female Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Read more here and here
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 7:56 am. 0 comments
In anticipation of her London Pride appearance July 4, DJ Kate Lawler has confided to G3 magazine that she fancies Megan Fox and Adriana Lima. Read More
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