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Beyond Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell
Portland’s Dr. Mary Ann Humphrey-Keever
weighs in on repeal
750-7964
BY RYAN J. PRADO
cityguysclark@cascadeaids org
Se habla español. Pruebas de VIH para hombres
Just a tew weeks removed from the his­
toric repeal o f the U.S. m ilitary’s ban on gay
men and women serving openly, emotions
continue to run high, its soldiers o f change
standing tall. Among those personally af­
fected by the legislation brave enough to
lead the fight against it is Dr. Mary Ann
Humphrey- Keever.
Humphrey-Keever’s book, M y Country,
M y Right to Serve, was published by Harper-
Collins in 1990— a full three years before the
Clinton administration’s “Don’t ask, don’t
tell” policy was signed into law. The book
pieced together the riveting stories, as told to
Humphrey-Keever, of 42 ex-servicemembers
whose military careers were destroyed by the
ban on gays serving, and became a corner­
stone of dialogue on reversing the law. Upon
its publication, M y Country, M y Right to
Serve was bestowed the Oregon Literary
Arts Association Award for creative nonfic­
tion, as well as a nomination for a Lambda
Award, among other accolades.
Humphrey-Keever, 67, is a longtime fac­
ulty member at Portland Community Col­
lege’s Rock Creek campus, where she teaches
physical education. She was working at PCC
in the ‘80s, too, while simultaneously serving
a commission position in the Army Reserve.
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In 1987, after nine years o f service and as a
newly promoted major working as an Affir­
mative Action, Equal Opportunity officer—
ironically enough— Humphrey-Keever was
forced to resign for being a lesbian following
what she says was the revenge o f a former
colleague and friend at PCC, whom she’d
unwittingly forced out o f his position. He
was also a reserve lieutenant colonel in the
U.S. Marine Corps.
It wasn’t until Humphrey-Keever visited a
psychiatrist to help her resolve her distrust
of peers, and mankind in general, that an
epiphany hit: “Perhaps you could be a pio­
neer, a spokesperson,” Dr. Kenneth Paltrow
suggested to Humphrey-Keever during a
session. “You could even write a book."
And so began a 20-plus year campaign
for awareness. Humphrey-Keever and her
partner Debra—who have been registered
domestic partners since 2008, together for
26 years and, as a political statement, have
been married a whopping three times,
whenever and wherever they can—became
poster children for any issue in the Pacific
Northwest that had to do with gays in the
military. She co-founded Veterans for H u ­
man Rights in 1992, and has led the Color
Guard holding the American flag at the
start of Portland’s Pride parade
for the past 18 years. She also led
a contingency o f 2,000 gay and
lesbian servicemembers in the
1993 March on Washington.
Humphrey-Keever’s work un­
doubtedly played a big role in the
eventual repeal of DADT. Now
that it’s over, she says, the real
challenge will be for service-
members to learn how to con­
front the inevitability o f contin­
ued discrimination.
“There will be the guys in the
military who find out someone’s a lesbian
and say, ‘You haven’t had the right guy yet,’
[or there’s] ‘the guy who hasn’t found the
right girl.’ There will be that because that
seems to be how we still think,” Humphrey-
Keever explains. “I don’t see that as going
away immediately. I think it’s a process.”
As evidenced by recent headlines involv­
ing at least one enlisted soldier coming out
via YouTube, the urge to free the burden o f
hidden sexual orientation among the ranks is
strong. Humphrey-Keever, noting that most
servicemembers are likely aware o f a peer’s