
i kind of like my growing-my-hair-out hair.
So i don’t want to make this seem like an announcement, because I don’t think it’s something so out of the ordinary that it needs it’s own proclamation.
However, i find it pretty exciting, and i know it will generate A SHIT TON of presumptions /assumptions /criticism /congratulations /disgust /admiration /_______________ , whether or not anyone has the chutzpah to actually comment (I really and honestly hope you do). Plus, it’s a relief in general.
Ya know that policy the Army has? You know the one, where you can’t ask or tell something something? Well, fortunately for us, Alan got out on August 1st. So now he can both ask and tell, and so can I. I’ve managed to avoid mentioning it for so long. I love and admire him for it, it’s something that makes him uniquely him. I’ve know about it since we were kids, and it’s never bothered me or done anything to dissuade me that he’s my one and only.
He told his family while we were home, which was obvs very important for him. The part where he tells the world has been both essential and very hard for him, since he’s had to hide it so fiercely the past 6 years. He’d never really dealt with it in high school, and he signed that dotted line at 17, so this was a big big big deal for him. My heart warms just imagining the courage it must have taken. I’ve been prodding him out of the closet for months, which is part of why I’ve been absent from the internet. It’s been emotional at times, both for each of us individualy, and as a married couple.
Personally, I never really bothered with the whole “coming out” thing. I never really cared. I sort of knew forever, I’m still hella attracted to women (infinitely moreso when drunk), and it never seemed like something I needed to tell my family (or the internet) in a you-should-probably-sit-down-for-this kind of way. To me, it’s just fun. Had I wound up with a woman, I would have introduced her to them, and they would have loved me for it anyway.
Then again, I never held a position that would have gone to the lengths of creating a whole separate regulation so that they could fire me specifically based on my sexual orientation.
I sort of believe that sexuality is more of a continuum, and less a limited number of boxes into which we all fit neatly. Wherever we fall depends on several things, including both biology and life experience. But that’s just my view.
So now, when we go out and he slobbers all over the SUPER HOT Thursday bartender, I can mention it casually without it effecting how people perceive his ability to do his job. When I take photos on Halloween, I can post ALL the pictures, instead of just the ones for which he won’t face incrimination at work. And maybe you kids out there in milspouse land can consider the idea that, sometimes, even tough guys like Best Rangers are partially gay.