Brett Jones: First Openly-Gay Navy SEAL Shares His Story. (Thoughts?)

Personally, I care more that he is using his status as a SEAL to bring about awareness and change, as opposed to another SEAL PR stunt and movie.

Seriously though, while he may be the first openly-gay SEAL, I'm sure he's not the first gay SEAL. Just as am sure there have been gay men in all branches since 1775, and across all SOF units since their inception. While it sucks he was kicked out, DADT was the law at the time, and it reflected the major opinion of our society. I'm glad we have been able to progress over the past 20 years.

Hard life. Hard place to live it too.

What struck me about this piece is that despite the fact that Jones has authored a book about his life story, this piece wasn't really pushing the book. Rather, it just provided a more condensed account of Jones's life, his growing up in an Air Force family that ultimately shunned him; making his own way for 10 grueling years of service on the SEAL Teams; his dismissal from the Navy upon his sexuality being revealed, and now his post-Navy life with his husband and son in rural northern Alabama. Whether you agree with his lifestyle or not, he is not pushing any agenda here, just telling his story. Say what you will, he is a man who has never opted for the easy path in life in anything he has chosen to do, from accepting who he is, to his first choice of career, to where he he has chosen to settle down and live his life, he has faced challenges and adversity every step of the way. This is what compelled me to share this here on RP.