Profile on Iraq War vet and gay playwright Jeff Key

Here's an excerpt from my profile on GLBT trailblazer Jeff Key in Bay Windows:

It’s Memorial Day and Iraq War veteran Jeff Key, currently in Boston to promote his acclaimed one-man show "The Eyes of Babylon," has a take-no-prisoners tone when it comes to the basic human rights the warrior-turned-playwright believed he was fighting for when he signed up for the military in 2000.

"As we do this interview, there’s a young gay kid right now seriously contemplating suicide," he says, sitting outside of J.P. Licks in Mission Hill wearing a black "Iraq Veterans Against the War" t-shirt. "The people who claim that homosexuality is an abomination are the same people who perpetuate the atrocities currently happening in the Middle East. Just last week in Afghanistan our bombs burnt the skin off innocent women and children," Key says, with tears welling up as he speaks.

"This whole bizarre concept that they weave together as being the righteous position which includes bombing innocent people and oppressing gay people is something right out 1930s Germany," he emotes. "When will it end?"

Ask him to comment on hot-button topics ranging from President Barack Obama’s waning pledge to overturn the Clinton-era policy of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" or California’s decision to uphold the Prop. 8 ban on same-sex marriage, and the openly gay Marine’s simmering passion transforms into rage.

"Gay marriage is a great lightning rod because it poses a simple question: Are we Americans like everybody else or are we not? It’s so peculiar that gay men are labeled as weak, that we’re the ’weaker sex.’ When we ban together, there isn’t a stronger group. If all of the alphabet groups, all of the LGBTQs out there in the world, stick together ... there’s no stopping us."

The 43-year-old activist continues, "If you were on the frontline and you had to choose between Bill O’Reilly or RuPaul to fight beside you in a war, who would you choose? It’s a no-brainer."

Jeff Key will perform "The Eyes of Babylon" from Thursday, May 28 through Sunday, May 31, and Thursday, June 4 through Saturday, June 6. Sunday show 2:00 p.m., all others 8:00 p.m. Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (949 Commonwealth Ave., Boston), tickets $25 via bu.edu/bpt.

Click here for the complete article in Bay Windows.