Don't Ask, Don't Tell: An insulting waste
I read this over the weekend. I covered it a bit earlier, but it merits attention. It's an old argument and one of my biggest gripes about equality.
It's all fine and well that we are stuck with this Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy in the military, but if it's going to be used to get rid of highly qualified people who happen to also be gay, it should apply to both wartime and peacetime.
It seems that the discharges from military service for gay personnel are at a low right now because the military is looking the other way and not processing discharges for homosexual military personnel. They need more people for the war, so for the time being, they are relaxing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.
Wasn't this policy to preserve "unit cohesion" that would supposedly be harmed by having homosexual personnel from serving openly along side straight personnel?
I guess unit cohesion is different in times of war. We are qualified to die and suffer injuries for our country just as long as we lie about what we are. It makes me proud to be an American!
Letter: An insulting waste
"I want you discharged from the military - but not just yet.'' That's the message Uncle Sam has these days for gay men and lesbians who serve in the military. Under the decade-old "don't ask, don't tell'' policy, the number of patriotic Americans kicked out of the military for their sexual orientations rose steadily from 1994 through 2001.
But when America went to war after Sept. 11, 2001, all of a sudden the military found that those gay men and lesbians had useful skills - and discharges dropped precipitously. In 2002, some 906 people were kicked out of the military and the Coast Guard--down from 1,273 the previous year. Last year, according to a new report from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the number fell again, to 787. (The Pentagon's official numbers differ only slightly.)
How badly, we wonder, has unit cohesion - in whose name the gay ban is perpetuated - suffered for all those gay men and lesbians whose service has been prolonged by military necessity? And if gay men and lesbians serve their country honorably and effectively during wars, where is the decency in drumming them out as soon as peace permits? The policy is insulting when enforced, insulting when not enforced--and all the more so because the military continues to tolerate harassment of those who "don't tell'' and are, therefore, still in the service. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network complains that the Bush administration and the military brass "continue to ignore a growing epidemic of anti-gay harassment within the armed forces,'' while the official anti-harassment plan "continues to collect dust on Pentagon shelves.''
A Pentagon spokeswoman said that the military is "committed to treating all service members with dignity and respect.'' Yet U.S. service members continue to face threats and abuse inside the military even as they deploy to Iraq, Afghanistan and other dangerous places.
"Don't ask, don't tell'' wastes federal resources while impugning the patriotism and wrecking the careers - at the convenience of the brass--of Americans who want to serve their country. It is past time to repeal the policy.
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