Double Marker: A Gay Jew in the Navy

Double Marker: A Gay Jew in the Navy
Ex-Sailor Recalls a Time When Honesty Led to Discharge
By Karen Loew
Published December 29, 2010, issue of January 07, 2011.
The Forward

Will the law allow return, Korrie Xavier wonders, for gay former military service members like her, who left the service only because they had to?

Just five years after her bat mitzvah, Xavier joined the Navy as a seaman recruit. She was trained to maintain and fire weapons systems on the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship based in San Diego. She liked the structure, the camaraderie, and sailing to ports from southeast Asia to Abu Dhabi. Barely in her 20s, the Michigan native became the nerve center of Jewish shipboard life — all while hiding her sexuality under her Navy uniform blues.