Pockets and Clubs

COC Number Four (+) happened to involve Anne's roommate, this one being a COC of a new variety: the Indirect COC (ICOC).

This was the first instance in which I was outed by someone without my consultation, which in most cases would be described as gossip. In this situation, however, Anne wasn't giving my sexuality away carelessly, and in fact felt she was doing me a favor, as here roommate, Sarah, was a). a lesbian, and b) in with a pocket of other gays in the unit. Sarah soon-after would out me to that pocket, with myself completely unaware of the multiple ICOC occurrences.

Before I go further, I think it is necessary to explain briefly the 'pocket' phenomenon in the military. Essentially, gays have an inherent knack for finding each other wherever they're stationed, creating cliques or 'pockets' of about 6-12 service members who generally arrive in the duty station simultaneously that last the duration of a particular service member's tour, which nowadays can be between 1 and 5 years. Upon arriving at a new duty station - usually accompanied by a few members of the old pocket - the service member either finds the local pocket or creates a new one, depending on the context. The pocket serves as not only a link to the larger gay community in the area, but as a support structure for those needing empathy and comfort in an environment that encourages silence in such matters. I don't think this trend is necessarily restricted to the military, though this type of behavior seems similar to civilian gay life roughly thirty years ago, as I understand it.

I doubt Anne fully understood the details of military gay pockets - none of us did, actually, as we thought our situation quite unique - but she intuitively knew the introduction of me to the group would be very useful, and it was.

Now, how I discovered Anne's outing will be described in the next blog, as it involves Patrick's story, which eventually leads to my involvement in Servicemembers United.