Semper Fi
Growing up gay in the South in the 70’s, with a strong Christian family who prayed you’d become a preacher doesn’t sound like the ideal start for an ex-Marine turned playwright. But that’s exactly the upbring Jeff Key had, and he wouldn’t trade it for the world. In Showtime’s original movie/documentary about the man, his autobiographical play, and his experiences in the Iraq War, you meet Key (as his Marine buddies call him), take a journey with him as he describes his early life, his coming out and his move to LA after college, and then follow his words and pictures as he joins the marines and less than two years later is sent to Iraq.
Jeff Key most definitely has a poet’s soul, as the words to describe a country torn apart by war flow out of him effortlessly. His descriptions of the children, the beautiful and radiant children, moved me to tears. “Mister Mister!” is a cry I’ve heard in other countries as children starving for nourishment of both the body and the spirit crowd around. For this Marine, it was an experience that altered him to the core. From his first footprints on sandy soil to his airlift out in a medical chopper, Jeff’s story rings of a heartbreak I cannot imagine.
That’s what it was for him, too. Heartbreak. The friends interviewed for the show all saw it, his family saw it, and it radiates in his eyes through the screen. The Iraqi people broke Jeff Keys’ heart. Which is why, upon returning home to discover he and his team had been looking for weapons that did not exist, had been surrounded by people who increasingly wanted them out of their country, Jeff Keys wrote the hardest letter he’d ever written. He came out of the closet, claiming “Don’t ask, don’t tell simply doesn’t work for me anymore.”
Keys went into the Marines knowing he was gay. Most of the men he served with knew he was gay. Jeff chose to closet himself to fight for a country he believed in, but his reasons for fighting and serving as a Marine became his reasons for leaving. And so he came out, and is asking and telling all over the place.
An amazing movie, a must-see. It’s showing several more times, so be sure to catch it next time around. And to Jeff Keys, I say Semper Fi, brother. Semper Fi.
Showtime, Semper Fi, Jeff Key, Marines, don’t ask don’t tell
July 20th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
yea i was a marine and i dont think that the title of that movie should have been semper fi. you disgrace the marine corps and all of its values by even serving with us. the name should have been semper gay!!!
August 7th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Jeff Key exemplifies everything good about the Marines and indeed, about America. He is a true patriot and a real man, in every sense of the word. He had the courage of his convictions, first, by joining the Marines at age 34, which required a waiver of the normal age restrictions, and then, when he soured on the war in Iraq, by becoming an activist against it, at one point becoming Cindy Sheehan’s bodyguard. He manages to represent the best values of both Red and Blue America.
The people who disgrace the Marine Corps and its values are the ones who would judge a man because of an inherent trait rather than the content of his character. Luckily for Jeff, most of the marines he served with were not like that.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Jeff Key is one of the most admirable people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. His patriotic views made me regain the respect I had lost for the military as a result of the Iraq war. Jeff Key is the antithesis of a disgrace.
September 18th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I WOULD LIKE TO READ HIS JOURNALS SOMEWHERE. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHERE I MAY PURCHASE ONE OR READ IT. THANK YOU.
September 25th, 2007 at 6:02 am
Hey Jeff - I thank you sir for your service to our nation. While I do not agree with your ultimate conclusion of this war, you have been there and have served our nation with courage and heroism. I am sorry that this war has caused you to question your part in it. Unlike many of my fellow citizens, I do not believe that our leaders lead us into this with a lie or purposefully because of oil or some ridiculous thing. I truly believe, and history will surely tell us the truth, but I truly believe that at that period in time, our leaders were no different than we were - scared about who out there had the power to hurt us. I believe in my heart that our leaders would not have faced the world as they did if they knew that every word they were uttering was a complete lie. In fact, I believe that America and its leaders are good and that we simply do not know how to respond to evil. Let us not forget 9/11. Let us not forget those nations and those leaders that would like nothing more than to hurt us.
But this is what makes our nation amazing, Jeff. Because of you and your brothers and all of those who came before you, we are all entitled to our opinion. So I again want to thank you for your service to this nation. My dad, who was in the US Marine Corps. during Vietnam but who has since passed away used to tell me that once a Marine, always a Marine. There is nothing, or no one, that can take that away from you Jeff. YOU achieved it and it is who you are. Semper Fi - God bless you and God bless America.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:32 pm
What an amazing story. Also being a soldier who has elected to protect this country I find it hard now days to find someone to look up to as a mentor. I now have one. thank you, key. And I hope that the leaders of the greatest nation in the world will make better decisions going foward and not repeat history once again.