‘Playing by the Rules’ a personal footnote on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ - Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

‘Playing by the Rules’ a personal footnote on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

Sgt. Justin Elzie was a Marine of the Year, selected for the honor by the 3rd Medical Battalion on Okinawa and the 3rd Force Service Group.

In the same year, he completed Marine Security Guard School and duty at the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki. His performance evaluations were full of “excellent” and “outstanding” ratings.

Then, in the euphoria surrounding a possible end to the ban against gay service members, Elzie came out of the closet when ABC News came to Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Overnight, the Marine of the Year became an “embarrassment” because supposedly “there were no gays in the Marine Corps.”

The year was 1993. A political compromise known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” became the policy and Elzie became a pawn.

Because of legal procedures — Elzie refused to accept a voluntary discharge without full benefits — the “first Marine and first service member” to be discharged under “don’t ask, don’t tell” remained on active duty for four years after coming out.

Seventeen years and more than 13,000 DADT discharges later, Elzie has written a personal story that arrived in bookstores just as Congress voted to repeal the policy.

Does the legislative repeal make Elzie’s book seem like old news? No. Rather, “Playing by the Rules” is a personal footnote to civil-rights history. The book lacks literary polish and precise editing but — in its favor — lacks pretense, too.

This is the story of a Wyoming man who “had played by the rules all along in my life.”

He was an Air Force brat whose parents attended a Pentecostal church. Growing up, Elzie prays “to Jesus to take away this desire for guys” and attends a Bible college before he decides to enlist.

In Jacksonville, N.C., he learns “quickly about the blurred lines in the Marine Corps between straight, bisexual and gay, and how many Marines floated between the three.” Twice, the book names a now-former commandant in this context.

After a 1994 profile in the Military Times newspapers, Elzie finds that “face-to-face interactions with other Marines was overwhelmingly positive,” especially among black and Latino Marines.

Others are not supportive. On one document, Elzie notices that a chief warrant officer draws a “smiley face” next to his signature, “in glee that I was going to be finally gone.”

Nearly 20 years later, Elzie is smiling and proud. “The biggest personal victory out of all this was that I had earned the title of a United States Marine.”