31May12-ANNAPOLIS, Md. When his roommate at the Naval Academy said jokingly last year
that Andrew Atwill was a homosexual, the midshipman told him to cut it out.

His friend didn't know it, Atwill says, but he really was gay and under the
"don't ask, don't tell" policy, it could have jeopardized his military career.

This year, the first since the Clinton-era policy was repealed, Atwill says
change has come to the academy. And talking about his sexual orientation, rather
than being a career-ending offense, has rallied midshipmen to his defense.

"Pretty much everybody in my company knows now" that he's gay, Atwill said, and
"they actually stand up for me." If his friends hear someone make a negative
remark about homosexuality, he said, they "don't hesitate" to tell that person
"it's not cool to do that anymore."

Eight months after the repeal, midshipmen both gay and straight describe a quiet
but significant transformation at the Naval Academy. Gay midshipmen are seeking
recognition for a student club. Last month, for the first time, faculty members
and staff attended an off-campus dinner that had been organized secretly every
year by and for gay midshipmen.

And Atwill and his boyfriend, classmate Nick Bonsall, planned to go together to
the Ring Dance, a formal ball held each spring for third-year midshipmen.

"It's been really great, actually," Bonsall, 20, of Middletown, Del., said of
life at the academy since repeal. "Everyone has been really accepting of us."

The experience at Annapolis this year mirrors those at the other service
academies, but some future officers worry about what happens after they
graduate. While their generation might be accepting, the broader military is
made up of people of all ages and backgrounds. Some senior officers say
privately that they won't come out for fear of jeopardizing their careers.

"Going very well"

Across the military, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said recently, the repeal of
"don't ask, don't tell" once highly controversial is "going very well."

"It's not impacting on morale," he told reporters after receiving a report on
the subject this month. "It's not impacting on unit cohesion. It's not impacting
on readiness."

Gay cadets at the U.S. Military Academy and the Coast Guard Academy are forming
clubs. Gay alumni at the Air Force Academy hosted their first football tailgate
last fall, and gay alumni at the Air Force Academy and West Point held their
annual dinners on campus for the first time.

But at the Naval Academy, while several gay midshipman describe a new level of
comfort on campus, some wonder how they will be accepted after they leave
Annapolis and join the fleet.

"For me, personally, it's still a concern," said Atwill, 23, of Bolton, Ky.
"When I become an officer, I'm kind of worried about whether or not my sailors
will take it the wrong way if I give them a pat on the back or, you know, happen
to be in the bathroom at the same time as them.

"I'm afraid that if they know that I'm gay, that if I was even to look at them
wrong, they may end up somehow turning that against me."

Not everyone foresees problems.

"In the fleet, it will be good," predicted Caitlyn Bryant, 21, a second-year
midshipman from Quantico, Va. Commanding sailors after the repeal, she said,
"you don't have to worry about what they might think your orientation is. You
can just focus on being a leader."

"

Fourth-year midshipman Kara Yingling, who is not gay, said the broader student
population "didn't make a big deal" of the policy change. Yingling served as
president this year of the Midshipman Action Group, the academy's service club.

"We have seen more openly gay people, and I think that's good for them, because
they no longer have to live their lives in fear that something's going to happen
just because of their sexuality," said Yingling, 22, of Johnstown, Pa.

As to "the overall attitude of the academy," she said, "we are taught to
separate our personal and our professional opinions, and that's still in play."

"Don't ask, don't tell" was approved by President Clinton in 1993 as a
compromise to end a long-standing ban on homosexuals serving in the military,
but also requiring them to maintain silence about their sexual orientation.

Previous policy

Commanders were not supposed to ask service members about their orientation (the
"don't ask" half of the policy); gay members were barred from declaring their
homosexuality ("don't tell"). They still could be discharged for homosexual
conduct. The compromise satisfied no one.

Steve Hall, executive director of the gay alumni group USNA Out, called "don't
ask, don't tell" a "cruel policy" that led gay midshipmen to believe that they
couldn't discuss their sexuality with academy chaplains or counselors.

"One of the first things people want to do when they start figuring out that
they're gay is they just want to talk to somebody about it," said Hall, a 1975
academy graduate.

Enlisted sailor

Second-year midshipman Kay Moore entered the Navy after high school as an
enlisted sailor. When she came to the Naval Academy, she said, "I felt the most
closeted I had ever felt in my life."

"I didn't feel in danger at all," said Moore, 24, of Boise, Idaho. "I just felt
that it was best for me to keep my mouth shut."

Congress voted at the end of 2010 to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," contingent
on certification by the president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff that lifting the ban would not harm military
readiness.

President Obama, Panetta and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
provided that certification last July, and the policy ended Sept. 20.

By then, every service member, civilian employee and academy cadet in the
military had received training on what the end of the policy meant. At the Naval
Academy, each midshipman attended a session led by a senior officer and
continued the discussion within their companies.

"Basically, it was stuff we already knew," Yingling said. "Something that our
parents probably taught us. You know, like, be nice to people and don't be
hurtful."

LOAD-DATE: May 30, 2012
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
BYLINE: Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun
SECTION: ROP ZONE; News; Pg. A12
LENGTH: 1011 words
DATELINE: Annapolis, Md.