June 11 — Shelby Condray was not sure he would go through with it until that morning, but the Boston University School of Theology student said he prepared himself by fasting the night before and brought a Bible with him — just in case.
Following an act of civil disobedience, New York City police arrested Condray, 32, in Times Square after he refused to leave a military recruitment center as part of a May 30 nonviolent protest against the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prevents openly homosexual people from serving in the military. Despite earning a summons to appear in court in July, at which point he could be charged with a misdemeanor for trespassing, Condray said he considers the protest a success.
“In a time when you have a war and you’re trying to recruit people, 12,000 soldiers have been kicked out,” Condray said. “Sixty-five thousand can’t tell the truth . . . [saying] ‘My love of my country is so much that I will serve my country even if it means lying about who I am.'”
At the time of Condray’s arrest, he was providing moral support to Harvard Divinity School student Jacob Reitan as Reitan attempted to enlist while declaring he was gay, thereby defying the policy. The two refused to leave the recruitment station, but said the police and recruitment officers were very respectful — even supportive — of their statement.
The Harvard Right to Serve group, to which Condray and Reitan belong, includes about 20 protesters who urged senators to end the military policy through demonstrations in four cities from May 24 to 31. There were 10 arrests in all during the week, Reitan said.
This is not the first time Reitan, 26, has tried to enlist, he said. Reitan, who is not against the military, said he sincerely wants to serve his country and should have the right to do so regardless of his sexual orientation.
“Even though I know I am going to be arrested, the net result of my action will be a result that changes my country for the better,” Reitan said. “We need to be willing to . . . bring down what is, in my opinion, the most unjust and most discriminatory law in the United States today.”
Condray and Reitan likened “don’t ask, don’t tell” to Jim Crow laws that segregated black and white Americans in Southern states until 1965.
“If this were a civil rights story and this were about race, we would now find that beyond absurd,” Condray said. “The time has come that people find ‘don’t ask, don’t tell absurd.”
Organized protests and demonstrations have shaped American history for a long time, said Kathleen Dalton, a visiting history professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“When over a million people demonstrated against the Vietnam War . . . historians now say that that was a constraining effect on Richard Nixon when he was president and stopped him from using nuclear bombs on Vietnam,” Dalton said. “So the movement to me is a heroic and powerful movement and eventually stopped the war.”
Dalton said the American attitude toward gay rights has changed dramatically since the 1950s, when homosexuality was classified as a mental illness and discrimination was prevalent.
“It’s clear that America has come a long way from that kind of prejudice,” Dalton said. “The military is an exception, and I think it’s one of those things that I think when Clinton accepted the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rule, he could have gone other ways, but he was really attacked by the conservative media.”
BU spokesman Colin Riley was unable to comment on Condray’s arrest, but he said students retain their right to protest while enrolled at BU. However, when they are arrested, the administration will generally have a conversation with the student and university judicial action may result.
Harvard University representatives declined to comment on Reitan.
Condray will begin the fall semester as the president of STH’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organization, Sacred Worth.