What will happen first, gays and lesbians will be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, or there will be an openly gay athlete in one of the four major professional sports?
Both, and soon, said Reichen Lehmkuhl, a former Air Force captain who won the $1 million prize on Season 4 of CBS-TV’s “The Amazing Race” and went on to a high-profile openly gay relationship with Lance Bass of ‘NSync.
“It should be a non-issue,” Lehmkuhl said. “I really think people are going to start not caring, realizing it’s simply about love.”
Lehmkuhl entered the Air Force Academy after graduating from high school. He would return to flying for the Air Force immediately if the ban on gays were lifted. As it happens, earlier this month Gen. John Shalikashvili, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in The New York Times that he now thinks gays should be able to serve openly in the military.
Lehmkuhl, 33, chronicled his Air Force journey in his autobiography, “Here’s What We’ll Say: Growing Up, Coming Out, and the U.S. Air Force” (Carroll & Graf, $25.95). The 343-page book details Lehmkuhl’s Air Force experiences, along with some endured by fellow gay cadets. Some of the events in the final chapter of Lehmkuhl’s book are portrayed as having happened to him, but, in reality, happened to others. “I integrated their stories into my own to ensure that their stories were told.”
Lehmkuhl, who lives in Southern California, speaks regularly across the country on gay issues. “It’s been a crazy road; I never envisioned this,” he said. “People often ask me what it’s like being a role model for the gay community. Well, it’s hard to see myself as a role model to the gay community because I’m not perfect and I have not done everything right in my life. But I do take pride in being a role model for someone who is well versed on the problems that we have with the ban on gays in the military.”
