As a soldier in Iraq, Rob Smith was thought of as just an American. This experience differs starkly from the United States, where Smith says his identity is often entirely drawn from his appearance and sexuality.

“So many times in America if you’re anything other than a straight, white male you’re always something else before you’re an American,” Smith said. “You’re a gay American, you’re an African American, you’re a Latino American. What I found is that overseas, in the eyes of the Iraqis, I was American before I was anything else.”

But even though the eyes of the Iraqis remained unprejudiced, Smith still struggled as a gay, African American soldier in the Army.

Smith, who is also a Syracuse University alumnus, details his experience in the military under the restrictions of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law in his memoir, “Closets, Combat, and Coming Out: Coming of Age as a Gay Man in the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Army.”

The book was released on Jan. 10. Smith has also written for many publications including CNN.com, The Huffington Post and The Advocate.

In November 2010, Smith was arrested for protesting DADT outside of the White House. Later that year, President Barack Obama invited Smith to attend the ceremony that would repeal the DADT law.

“It was the first time in my life that I can really remember knowing that something that was happening was very deeply wrong, and knowing what it was like to serve under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, I wanted to be a part of ending it and making the lives for LGBT soldiers in the future better,” Smith said.

Smith graduated from SU in 2008 with a major in advertising, but after a few years of working in New York City, Smith said he had realized it was not for him, so he transitioned to freelance journalism.

However the last semester of Smith’s senior year at SU, he said he took a writing class called “Creative Non-Fiction” with Minnie Bruce Pratt who teaches writing and rhetoric as well as women and gender studies. One of his assignments from the class, Smith said, became the first chapter in his recently published memoir.

“The class really inspired me to write this book and I thank Minnie Bruce Pratt in the acknowledgements,” Smith said.

Smith described his memoir as “a gay coming of age story with a military twist.” In the memoir, he describes the parallel experiences of coming out as a gay man when he was growing up in Akron, Ohio in a lower-middle class family and staying quiet during his military service about his sexuality under the restrictions of DADT.

Smith served in the military for five years and spent four years active and one year in reserve. Smith said he was deployed to Kuwait for six months and he was deployed to Iraq in 2003, three weeks after the war began.

In the first chapter, Smith said almost immediately he felt ostracized when he noticed that he was the only black man in his platoon on the first day of basic training.

Smith’s memoir is the first Iraq war veteran memoir written by an African American, “which was kind of shocking to me when I realized this because it’s been over ten years (since the Iraq war began),” Smith said.

While progress has been made for LGBT soldiers, Smith said there is still work to be done. His memoir is also the first Iraq war veteran memoir to be written by a gay solider since the DADT repeal.

“I think there is a movement now towards more understanding,” he said. “There are still some fundamental things that need to be addressed even with the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal.”

Transgender soldiers are still not allowed to serve openly in the military, Smith said.
He added that there are also no non-discrimination laws currently in place that protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender soldiers.

“Meanwhile there are laws in the military protecting soldiers based on their race, gender and religion, but there is not one currently protecting sexual orientation,” Smith said.

There are also thousands of soldiers who were dishonorably discharged under the DADT law, Smith said, and these soldiers still do not have access to the educational and healthcare benefits that soldiers earn after they have been honorably discharged.

Smith said a piece of legislation has been recently introduced to the House of Representatives that will reverse any dishonorable discharges a soldier has received under the DADT law, and Smith said he would be supporting the legislation.

This bill, known as the “Restore Honor to Service Members Act,” was introduced to the House of Representatives in July of 2013 by Democratic U.S. Representatives Mark Pocan (WI-02) and Charles Rangel (NY-13), according to Rep. Pocan’s website.

As many as 114,000 soldiers have been dishonorably discharged on the sole basis of their sexual orientation since World War II to the repeal of DADT, according to a press release from Rep. Pocan’s website.

On Jan. 30, Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the bill to the Senate, according to Rep. Pocan’s press release.

There is also an organization called OutServe-SLDN that helps soldiers who are looking to upgrade their discharge from DADT through a legal process, Smith said.

Said Smith: “The military is getting better, but it’s not an institution without racism or homophobia.”

Published on February 3, 2014 at 1:08 am

Contact Anna: almerod@syr.edu