Lance Corporal Jeff Key is one of the most patriotic people you’ll ever meet. A gay man from Alabama, he felt there was something missing in his life, so, at age 34, he joined the Marines. They bent the rules to accommodate his age, but he kept his homosexuality a secret. Then, four hijacked planes changed the course of history on September 11, 2001.

Semper Fi blends documentary and interview footage with Key’s one-man theater performance about his tour of duty in Iraq as a closeted gay soldier. The story begins with him on a bare stage, wearing just white boxer shorts and his dog tags, waking up to news of the attacks. Key then leads us back in time to a conservative adolescence spent as a teen preacher with the burgeoning awareness of his sexuality. He eventually lands in the gay theater community of Los Angeles, where he shocks his friends by joining the Marines.

Stationed in Iraq, Key is confident in his decision to fulfill his love of God and country. But after “Mission Accomplished,” he sees a situation going terribly wrong. At the same time, it becomes more and more difficult to keep his sexuality a secret (especially with so many hot Iraqi men around him). He realizes that the mission isn’t working, and neither is the policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Semper Fi paints a refreshing portrait of a gay man we rarely meet and proves that patriotism, like sexuality, comes in many different packages. — COREY EUBANKS