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From Blue Alliance - The Ir Force Acadely LGBT ALLUMNI ORG:

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My neighbor Steve Clark Hall, USNA grad, is working on a documentary detailing the lives of Annapolis’ gay grads under DADT.

The film is planned to be premiered this summer.

Here is the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ETHwZt7p6E&fmt=18

Film documents gay life at Naval Academy

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bi ... _27-24/NAV

By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer
Published January 27, 2009


A movie trailer is making the rounds promoting a new documentary film about the lives of gay and lesbian Naval Academy midshipmen and graduates.

The documentary is being made by gay academy alumni, many of whom are members of the group USNA Out. Work began on the film "Out of Annapolis" in late October, and is expected to be completed in time for this summer's film festivals.

The message behind "Out of Annapolis" is that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender academy students and graduates admire the academy and the military, and want to serve their country. But federal law and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy requires them to hide their sexual identity if they want to serve in uniform.

"Everyone makes sacrifices in serving the country, but for me, living in the closet was one of my sacrifices," Mike O'Donnell, Naval Academy Class of 1996 and a former flight officer, told The Capital. Mr. O'Donnell is one of the people featured in the trailer, which can be seen on YouTube.com and at OutOfAnnapolis.com.

In the trailer, one former Marine Corps officer, Joe Soto, talked about being a closet homosexual while having to order a fellow Marine jailed for being a lesbian. "As soon as I signed the confining order, they put the handcuffs on; I think that was the moment when I decided I can't do this anymore," said Mr. Soto, who resigned from the military shortly after that event.

One woman who was forced to resign from the Naval Academy in January 1983, Robin Bolster, said she was amazed at how much time and money the academy and the Pentagon spent investigating her. "Unbeknownst to me, people were watching me (for nearly a year); I didn't know I was a lesbian when I entered the academy," said Ms. Bolster, now an urban planner in Santa Cruz, Calif. "I dated men and was engaged to a man while at the academy ... but I met this woman, and my feelings for her were much more real."

Ms. Bolster and the woman she was attracted to, a junior Navy officer, were dismissed from the service because of their relationship. "I can't watch that trailer without crying," Ms. Bolster said of the documentary. "I am hopeful things will change; we (as a society) have come a long way in 25 years."

Jeff Petrie, president of USNA Out, a group of academy grads and students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, said his organization is helping to make the movie to show the pain that "don't ask, don't tell" has caused.
There are a lot of reasons young gays and lesbians could find themselves at the Naval Academy, despite the law against their serving in the military, Mr. Petrie said. "When you are 17 and a senior in high school," he said, "you aren't clear about what you're getting into. Or, maybe you haven't self-identified yourself sexually. Maybe there's a family tradition (of attending the academy) and you are pressured; maybe it is financial. These are the types of things we talk about in the documentary," he said.

Don't ask, don't tell

Mr. Petrie said filmmakers began the project expecting perhaps 30 academy grads and former mids to be willing to talk on-camera. As it turns out, they'll have about 75 on film, plus dozens more who will be used as background material.

One former midshipman who is featured, Brian Bender, graduated in 1993 and now is vice president of a financial institution in New York City. "I think the film is a fantastic opportunity to highlight a number of U.S. Naval Academy graduates," Mr. Bender said in an interview. "People have a genuine interest in two things that just don't match up - homosexuality and the military. I am really proud of my service to the country," said Mr. Bender, who served five years as a submarine officer.

A number of people think the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is on the verge of being abolished. In November, 104 admirals and generals - nearly all of them from the Army and Air Force - signed a petition to the Obama transition team, asking the new president to repeal the policy. A number of our closest allies, including Great Britain and Israel, allow openly gay people to serve in the military, the petition noted.

The top-ranking officer to sign the letter, Annapolis-area resident four-star Adm. Charles R. Larson, served two tours as superintendent of the Naval Academy - 1983 to 1986, and 1994 to 1998. Adm. Larson did not return a reporter's calls, but, according to Associated Press reports, he has a daughter who is a lesbian, and he has worked with a number of gay people. "(T)here were a lot of witch hunts and a lot of people were turned out (of the military) on that basis," Adm. Larson told the AP.

A wide net

Joseph C. Steffan, one of the top 10 midshipmen in his graduating class, was forced to resign in April 1987, just six weeks before commissioning. A decade later, in May 1997, junior Tommy Watkins Jr., an ordained minister and president of the Class of 1998, was forced to resign. Neither Mr. Steffan nor Mr. Watkins was accused of committing homosexual acts, but both said "Sir, yes, sir," when asked if they were gay.

President Bill Clinton created the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in 1993 as a compromise intended to soften the prohibition against homosexuals serving in the military, without amending the law.

Mr. Bender, the 1993 academy grad featured in the film, recalled that when he applied to the Naval Academy in the 1980s, a question on the form asked if he was homosexual. He checked "No."

Today, because of the 1993 policy, that question no longer appears on the application, even though the prohibition continues to exist.

Strong opposition

Gays must not be allowed to serve openly in the military, according to Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, an organization that opposes allowing gays to serve in the military and women to serve in combat.
It would take an act of Congress, not President Obama, to nullify the existing law, Ms. Donnelly said. "The consequences would be very far-reaching and harmful to the military in the form of disciplinary issues," she said, pointing to the "forced intimacy" that some military assignments require.

Ms. Donnelly said of the film "Out of Annapolis," "It is a PR campaign. It is a very skilled PR campaign, but it is nothing more than a PR campaign." Ms. Donnelly went on to say that, of the 104 flag officers who have called for lifting the prohibition against gays in the military, "This is a very small number." She also said the officers who signed were "not very impressive."

Ms. Donnelly said USNA Out was guilty of making a biased documentary that showed only one side of the issue.

The chief filmmaker behind "Out of Annapolis," retired Navy Capt. Steve Clark Hall, served in the Navy for 20 years and is a member of USNA Out. He is a member of the Class of 1975 and a former submarine commander. Capt. Hall often speaks in public of his love for the Naval Academy and the Navy, and he is a member of the President's Circle, a select group of donors who each give at least $2,500 a year to the Naval Academy Foundation.

Capt. Hall got the idea for the film project after attending some film festivals, Mr. Petrie said, and spent about $30,000 of his own money to purchase movie equipment. Capt. Hall was out of the country recently and could not be reached for comment.

Another academy grad, Heather Davies, an All-American swimmer while at the academy and a 1993 graduate, is composing an original musical score for the film.

In the film, Linda Postenrider, a math major who graduated from the academy in 1982, discussed her application to the Naval Academy. "When I took the oath of office, I did not identify myself as a lesbian," she said in the film trailer. "I was brought up in a very strict Lutheran Christian home and thought it was sinful."

Still, Ms. Postenrider is loyal to the academy and the military.

A former surface ware officer and supply officer, Ms. Postenrider is an artist who created a series of watercolor paintings titled the "Midshipmen Series," and one of her images was used as the logo celebrating the 30th anniversary of women being admitted to the Naval Academy. The painting is part of the Naval Academy Museum's collection, and Ms. Postenrider has served as a Blue and Gold, or recruiting, officer for the academy. She also has served as a member of the Naval Academy Alumni Association board of trustees.

Alumni Association spokesman Skid Heyworth said the organization is not bound by the don't ask, don't tell policy that controls the military, and extends membership to anyone who ever took the oath of office as a midshipman.
"That is a Department of Defense matter," he said of don't ask, don't tell.

USNA Out has an application pending to be recognized as a chapter of the alumni association. In past years, the association has denied the request, on grounds that its 101 chapters are organized by geography, not by a special interest.
USNA Out counters that one alumni chapter consists of RV owners, who are identified by an interest and not by a geographical boundary.

Despite this disagreement, Mr. Heyworth commended the makers of "Out of Annapolis" for using film and the Internet to make their case. "In this world of multimedia, if you want to get your message out, you should do it every way you can," he said.

"I have seen the trailer for 'Out of Annapolis,' " he said, "and one thing is clear - it is very positive about their experiences at the Naval Academy."