When Michael Joseph Gross entered Fort Lewis military with a retired officer, he was nervous, to say the least. 

His mission was to randomly search for enlisted, straight soldiers and find out how they feel about serving alongside gays and lesbians in the military.  He wanted to shed some light on the debate about repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” or DADT, a federal law and policy on gays in the military that was started in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.  

“If the policy changes, it will have a more profound impact than any other legal reform for gays and lesbians, shy of same sex marriages,” Gross said.  “It may even be bigger than that.  It will allow so many more people from every class to get to know the reality of gay people’s lives … . To have more people see gay people give their lives for their country makes it more difficult for people to hate us.” 
 
Prior to visiting Fort Lewis, Gross, who works as a contributing writer for The Advocate — a U.S.-based gay and lesbian magazine — did background research that included talking with organizations that are focused on fighting for the repeal of the law.  He also enlisted the aid of a retired officer who teaches an ethics course at Fort Lewis and contacted and spoke with a half dozen active duty soldiers, reservists, and recent veterans who oppose the ban, he said.  Additionally, he found statistics that pertained to gays and lesbians in the military. 

“Last year about 619 soldiers were thrown out of the military for being gay,” he said.  “A 2006 poll showed that 45 percent of all service members suspect that at least one person in their unit is gay or lesbian, and 23 percent are sure of it.”

Equipped with his statistics and knowledge of the policy, he made the trip to Fort Lewis in September.  Though well versed on the subject, he had his reservations about his visit. For starters, he wanted to perform random interviews, so he did not alert Public Affairs of his visit.    His sources told him horror stories about entering post without contacting the Public Affairs Office.  They told him that if he were caught he would be escorted off post and maybe even detained for questioning.  Despite the risks, he decided anonymity was the best way to get what he needed for his story. 
Although he wasn’t caught, what occurred during Gross’s Sunday afternoon visit shocked him even more. 

“My visit to Fort Lewis was nothing like what I expected,” he said. “I was so impressed by the courage of the soldiers who spoke to me. The soldiers were open and very willing to talk about their gay friends in the military. I left the base that day with my jaw dragging on the ground.”

Gross’s journey began with a fresh buzz cut and a visit to the Fort Lewis Post Exchange.  He planned to speak only to enlisted men because he thought they would have the strongest arguments against the ban, he said.

After about 45 minutes of watching soldiers come and go, Gross finally mustered up the courage to approach a soldier. He told the man that he was writing a story for a magazine, and he never disclosed which side of the “don’t tell, don’t ask” policy he was on.  After being promised anonymity, the enlisted soldier spoke openly about two gay soldiers he knows, Gross said.  The soldier told Gross that he knows a couple of guys who are gay and that they are very good soldiers.

“I thought I got lucky with him,” Gross said.  

However, the second soldier he interviewed also had a positive attitude about gays and lesbians serving in the military, he said.  In his story that ran in the Advocate, Gross explained the encounter.

He wrote: “At first when I got in, I could not believe how open the homosexuals were.  But it doesn’t matter.  I had one in my unit that was an officer and we would joke around with him … Everybody likes him.  He’s good at his job.  So what’s the big deal?” 

He continued to interview soldiers and learned that all but one of the 10 or so young men were aware of gay or lesbian soldiers who serve in the military.  Furthermore, none of the soldiers made an argument against the repeal of DADT.     

Supporters of the ban argue that gays — if allowed to serve openly — would harm unit cohesion, troop readiness, and morale largely because their presence would make straight soldiers self-conscious when showering or dressing in front of them, Gross said.

But he found that the young soldiers did not agree with the policy.  By the end of his Fort Lewis visit, Gross was astonished by the acceptance of gays and lesbians by young soldiers.
 
“My experience at Fort Lewis showed me clearly that there is a substantial group of straight soldiers who know that they serve with gay soldiers, and they have no problem with it,” Gross said. “However, these same soldiers have a huge problem with their friends having to lie to serve their country.”