I'm a former US Marine and Iraq war veteran. I was an activated reservist and deployed to Eastern Iraq (the Iranian border) in March of 2003. Two months later I was medi-vac'd out and flew back to Camp Pendleton for surgery. Upon returning from Iraq, because of my growing concerns about the war, how it was not making my nation safer, how the Iraqis were suffering horribly for no reason, how my fellow service members were being injured and dying in a country that had nothing to do with September 11th, and because of my strong convictions that the invasion was part of a plan that had more to do with corporate gains than thwarting terrorists, I made the difficult decision to exit the military.
I did have a way out. I was (am) gay and I knew that all I had to do was to admit that publicly and, since this nation still does not allow for openly gay men and women to serve in the military, unless they changed that (archaic and inane) policy, they would have to discharge me. It was a way out but it was not an "easy" way out. I went on CNN as Paula Zahn's guest and came out of the closet to five million people. I announced the founding of a non-profit organization called The Mehadi Foundation to help returning veterans and support philanthropic efforts in Iraq. The best thing we can do at this point to make ourselves safer is to let the rest of the world know that all Americans do not want to kill them and in fact many want to help people.
While I was in Iraq, I kept a journal and when I got home, I developed those journals into a one-man performance piece called The Eyes of Babylon. The Showtime Network has made a documentary about my story, Semper Fi: One Marine's Journey that includes parts of my play and interviews with my family, friends and fellow Marines. |
JEFF KEY |
