Do Ask, Do Tell

The original Bill of Rights is now about 210 years old. Is it time to re-evaluate our fundamental constitutional rights? Are we ready to trust ourselves as individuals with the personal responsibilities that go with rights? This show is presented from the personal perspective of John Boushkaa gay man who grew up in a period […]

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The original Bill of Rights is now about 210 years old. Is it time to re-evaluate our fundamental constitutional rights? Are we ready to trust ourselves as individuals with the personal responsibilities that go with rights? This show is presented from the personal perspective of John Boushkaa gay man who grew up in a period of enormous change and migration toward cultural individualism. He is author of the book Do Ask, Do Tell: A Gay Conservative Lashes Back

Welcome to this edition of Newsgram.

Starting in February of 1994 and running all the way through September of 2011 “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was the official US policy regarding non-heterosexual people in military service. It was instituted during the Clinton administration and by 2008, more than 12,000 officers had been discharged from the military for publicizing their homosexuality. 

It was overturned by the senate during the Obama administration on  December 18, 2010. The repeal allowed gay and lesbian military members to serve openly in the armed forces.

This is not a history lesson on gay rights and the US government — we don’t have that kind of time but a little background is necessary. Today we are going to focus on John Boushka’s new book about several important issues including what “discrimination” is really all about, and what the debate regarding “family values” is really all about. Why equal rights for gays is important for everybody and how the “Don’t Tell” mentality interferes with political and social debate in many areas but since all that is clearly laid out in th ebook let’s take a step back an examine what life was like before writing it, because for anyone who has ever come out publicly, it is a moment you will never forget. 

John Boushka – It was Friday November 24th 1961. The day after Thanksgiving 1961.

The Day after Thanksgiving, John Boushka walked into the Dean’s office while he was away at college and admitted that he was having feelings for men. There had been no sexual experience before that but the feelings were there. 

John Boushka – The call from what my father said came in around eight o’clock in the evening. The dean identified himself and said they needed to come back to Williamsburg to talk to me. Him and my mother and so it would have been a very stressful thing for a couple to wonder why a dean wanted to talk to their child. Can you imagine what that would have been like?  

I’m already wondering about a lot of things. Like why that call needed to be made in the first place. I guess because it was 1961, which also explains what happened next. 

John Boushka – The end result was I was taken out of school. I would only be allowed to go back  if a psychiatrist certified it was ok for me to go back to school. 

The assumption being there is something psychologically wrong with being gay and further evaluation was necessary. Couldn’t just let him run free on campus with those crazy feelings of his.

John Boushka – This is one of the reasons why you had McCarthyism and you had witch hunts in the government and state department because the psychiatrist profession was making money off it. Today, Gender theory, who is making money off of it. 

A lot to think about but poor John had to spend six months at the national Institute of Health in Bethesda Washington 

John Boushka – There was actually a program to examine this problem in the fall of 1962 and some of the book deals with that. 

When you look at the way things were then and you hear the stories about what life was like it’s absolutely fascinating and if you feel like we haven’t made progress I can tell you that when you hear John’s story you will understand that we have definitely made progress.

He talks about joining the military in the late 60’s and while Don’t ask Don’t tell may not have been the official policy it was definitely a thing. He also spent time in Dallas in the 80’s. Not the best place to ride out the Aids scare. 

John Boushka – In Dallas they threatened to reinforce the Sodomy law with what was a much more draconian law in Texas in the mid nineteen eighties before they had a test for HIV that was politically a very difficult time. I talk about that in the book 

Yea, Dallas definitely had its share of controversies in the 1960’s in effort to come full circle here let’s fast forward to the Clinton Administration. When you look at the living conditions of servicemen, which is what they had to do to come up with this policy, there are a lot of parallels with the living conditions in a college dorm. John was able to draw on his experiences throughout the years to tell this story and here is an important takeaway. 

 John Boushka – Your personal rights can be taken away when external circumstances justify a more authoritarian control of people. You are seeing this happen in other countries. 

I like the way he said that, “Your personal rights can be taken away when external circumstances justify a more authoritarian control of people”. If that strikes a cord you might enjoy his book — Do Ask, Do Tell: A Gay Conservative Lashes Back: Individualism, Identity, Personal Rights, Responsibility and Community in a Libertaria by John Boushka

And that will wrap up another edition of Newsgram from https://www.Webtalkradio.com 

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