In this Pride Month episode, Navy veteran and author Karen Solt joins co-host V.V. Ganeshananthan and guest co-host Matt Gallagher to talk about her experience of being gay while serving in the military.
Solt, who retired as a senior chief petty officer in 2006 and served both before and during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” talks about the Clinton-era policy that prohibited the harassment of gay service members while requiring that they stay closeted. Solt explains the impossible position gay military members were in before and during DADT, as they faced questioning from investigators, the threat of losing their jobs if found out, and being separated from their partners rather than being moved together as their straight counterparts often were. Solt reads from her book, .
You joined the military in 1984, and when you did that, you didn’t yet know you were gay. Could you say a little bit more about the circumstances under which you enlisted, and how your Navy career took off from there? Back in those days, gay visibility was minimal, especially in a small, conservative hometown like mine. I was a young kid who struggled quite a bit, and I didn’t really know why.
I didn’t know it was because I’m gay, because I didn’t know that I was gay. I was barely graduating from high school when the Navy recruiter came and contacted a few of us who had no plans after high school, and I had no desire to go into the military. Six months later, he contacted me again.
I was working.