For Wounded Gay Marine, Coming Out to Comrades Wasn't an Issue

The first U.S. Marine seriously wounded in Iraq, Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, lost his leg when he stepped on a land mine, but today he and his prosthetic leg are not marching against terrorists or Saddam loyalists, but rather against the bigotry and small mindedness of his commanders, his Commander-in-Chief and indeed many of his own countrymen! People who once hailed him as a hero, would now forget not only his service and personal pain and sacrifice, but also their own tired mantra of "SUPPORT THE TROOPS" since one of those stricken heroes was a homosexual.

Although Alva had largely kept his sexual orientation to himself, losing his leg made him do some soul seearching of his own. "It made me realize everything that I had to actually speak up for," Alva said to ABC News in an exclusive TV interview, "basically the rights and privileges of what I as an individual have earned in this country."


Knowing what he would face once he came out of the closet, Alva practiced in his mind what he would say to someone who--now knowing of his sexual interests--would say about his right to serve openly as a gay man: "'OK buddy,'" he said, "'you pick up a gun and you go fight in Iraq or Afghanistan for a while, then you could come back and we can have a talk because I've actually sacrificed, I've actually done duty and served in this country for your rights and freedom.'" Very few on the right, of course, have taken Alva up on his challenge. Surprise, surprise!


While Alva's serice got a little easier with the inception of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, he still found the courage--and took the risk--to tell others.

"I told tons of people," he said, laughing. "A lot of my friends, my buddies, my closest Marines, people I had served in combat with. Straight guys, married, with children and everything, three of them which I have become their sons' godfather now. Everybody was just respectful and was just like ordinary. 'That's it? That's your big news?'"

The occasional derogatory anti-gay slur aside, Sgt. Alva feels the Marine Corps--and military in general--is ready to accept opnely gay service members.


"Being on the front lines and serving with the people who even actually knew that I was gay, you know, that was never a factor. We were there to do a job. We were [there] to do a mission. I don't think people would have a hard time with it because they know that the person right next to them is going to be there to protect them, in our terms, 'have their back.'"