Here's What We'll Say

By Ross Von Metzke

When Reichen Lehmkuhl crossed the finish line with then partner Chip Arndt on The Amazing Race, a gay star was born. Magazine covers, a calendar chalk full of barely clothed beefcake photos and a short-lived talk show on the now defunct Q Television network followed, and in the gay community, Reichen was undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with.

Earlier this year, his much publicized relationship with Lance Bass was met with an onslaught of mainstream media attention-for better or worse, the couple became the most visible in the gay community, turning up at premieres, album release parties and accepting dual honors from the Human Rights Campaign.

But quietly, through all the media attention, Reichen released a book. Here’s What We’ll Say, named for the phrase the former Air Force Captain and his fellow gay classmates would utter before concocting a cover story to prevent any of them from being outed and discharged, is a fairly blunt, if lightly sugarcoated take on what life is like for thousands of openly gay members of the Armed Forces.

Lehmkuhl is no wordsmith. His story doesn’t conjure up lofty images of him one day taking home a Pulitzer or winning a Nobel Peace Prize for bringing to light the plight of the closeted solider.

But there’s something refreshing about his everyman take on life at the Air Force Academy, a time in which Lehmkuhl came to terms both with his sexuality and with the fact that life for gay members of the military is not only unfair, it’s deplorable.

A few of his memories are tough to swallow, particularly a recurring theme in which Reichen laments what he considers to be a less than thrilling physique and gawky facial features. By book’s end, he’s come to terms with the fact that he’s well on track to becoming the gorgeous chiseled creature we see before us today, but it’s hard to believe he was ever less than easy on the eyes.

A passage in which he recounts being blindfolded and raped by a duo of fellow classmates should speak to the horror of abuse so many in the military face, but because Lehmkuhl counters it with memories of a sudden sexual awakening and the odd sensation that he kind of liked what was happening to him, it cheapens the moment-while the memory might be accurate, Here’s What We’ll Say should speak to the greater population, and this memory, sadly, does not.

Still, Here’s What We’ll Say is packed with plenty of fine moments-it’s finest the idea that so many of his fellow classmates managed to keep his secret through his years at the academy on into career in the Air Force. Gay classmates, straight classmates. Classmates who are homophobic and scared as the book commences but become some of the authors greatest allies as he comes of age and strength. It’s a sign that "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" is so unthinkably outdated, it no longer represents the wishes of even it’s most likely critic-straight members of the military.

And of course, with any good coming of age novels, there re the string of sexual encounters-from a threesome with two fellow cadets to the ting of his first broken heart, Reichen has a handle on titillating his audience with the promise of just enough skin.

Nothing revolutionary here-a well meaning if sometimes meandering trek through the murky waters of military life. But that someone so easily accessible to the gay community as Reichen lived it, remembers it and cares to tell of it has done so with such a personal touch makes it a potent, engaging read.

Now if only someone had the foresight to include some shirtless photos among the lesson plan.

Here’s What We’ll Say is available now from Carroll & Graf.      

Ross Von Metzke is a writer is the Entertainment Editor of GayWired. You can reach him via info@huriyahmag.com

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