Don’t ask, don’t tell

Written by Andrea Gilbey.

Lance Corporal Jeff Key was kicked out of the US Marine Corps for coming out to his fellow officers during the war in Iraq.

His story of what it meant to be gay and at war is told in the forthcoming Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF) documentary, Semper Fi: One Marine’s Journey (Latin for ‘always faithful’, and the Marines’ motto) which recently won the audience award for Best Documentary at the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco.

Key had a degree in theatre and was living in Hollywood, when in 2000, aged 34, he made the unlikely choice of joining the Marine Corps.

It was something he was determined to do despite friends and family trying their best to persuade him otherwise.

“I became a marine to protect innocent and persecuted people,” Key tells MCV.

He kept detailed journals during his service in Iraq, but didn’t want to talk about the war after coming out until he met theatre director Yuval Hadadi at the gym. Hadadi persuaded Key to turn the journals into an award-winning one-man play, Eyes of Babylon, which became a huge hit, and was quickly followed by an offer from Showtime TV to turn his story into a film.

Originally from Alabama, and bought up in the Church of Christ, Key remains a true believer in God and in serving his country.

“I had the most intensely spiritual time in Iraq and felt the closest I ever have to God,” he says.

Now living in Salt Lake City, Utah with his husband of six months, Jeff says he would love to be in Melbourne for the MQFF, but is currently co-producing and directing his next play, Let us Sing, loosely based on his upbringing in the USA’s conservative Bible Belt in the 1980s. He hopes to tour Australia with Eyes of Babylon next year, and at some point would like to publish his journals as a book.

Key’s involvement in Iraq didn’t stop when he left the Marines; he’s now an active member of Iraq Veterans Against War (IVAW) and has started his own charity, The Mehadi Foundation, which recently shipped 100 wheelchairs to Kuwait.

Key makes his views on the Bush administration very clear.

“Banning gays in the military is stupid. I don’t know how Bush ever got in. You can’t find anyone who admits to voting for him,” he says.

The US policy which bans gays and lesbians from openly serving their country is commonly known as ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, and penalises servicemen and women who disclose their sexuality by expelling them.

“I can’t believe we are one of the last western countries to allow openly gay men and women to join their military force,” a bewildered Key says. “When I did finally make the decision to come out to my fellow marines, they were all very supportive.”

full article