Tonight's episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story recounted the days and hours leading up to Jeff Trail's (Finn Wittrock) murder through a haunting framing device: Trail's history in the Navy, and his struggle to reconcile his career with his sexuality at a time when gay people were prohibited from openly serving in the military.
In the episode, titled "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (a reference to the 1994 policy which allowed closeted gay people to serve in the military), Andrew Cunanan, Trail's eventual murderer, finds a tape of a 48 Hours segment about the policy inside Trail's apartment. Cunanan realizes the closeted man, interviewed in silhouette to obscure his identity for the piece, is actually Trail.
In real life, this interview took place in 1993, a year before Don't Ask Don't Tell passed. Journalist Richard Schlesinger interviewed Trail for the segment, a portion of which is on Youtube today:
In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, Trail tells Schlesinger many closeted gay people currently serve in the military and hugely benefit the organization: "Whether people like it or not, there are gays in the military. They're very top-notch performers. They know what they're doing," he said. "You're gonna weaken our national defense if you remove gays from the military." He also admits he wishes he could be himself: "There's nothing I would like more than to be lit up and tell you who I am and show you who I am. But I'm not allowed to do that."
The footage is both chilling and heartbreaking; Trail is clearly passionate about both his career and his desire to live his life freely, something he never really gets the chance to achieve—he left the Navy in 1996, and not all of his family knew he was gay at the time of his death, according to Maureen Orth in her book, Vulgar Favors.
In December 2017, Schlesinger wrote about his experience with Trail for CBS:
Jeff Trail was an ensign and a Gulf War veteran. He was an impressive man—an Annapolis grad. He was smart, good looking and very brave. He chose to speak to us because he thought it was the right thing to do. He did the interview in silhouette but he was still taking a tremendous risk with his career. He had absolutely nothing to gain by doing the interview. Yet he took the risk and spoke out. My colleagues and I left San Diego very impressed with Ensign Trail.
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story airs Wednesdays at 10 PM EST on FX.
