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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyMay 4th, 2007
He thought his Navy days were behind him:
On his wedding night in July 2004, then-Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Knight finally accepted a truth he had fought against for years: he was gay.
Almost immediately, he moved to get his marriage annulled. He apologized to the woman he’d married. And when it came time to explain his changing circumstances to the Navy, he left nothing out. Under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, he was quickly discharged from the service.
But now — whether through a clerical oversight or what some claim is an unwritten change in policy to keep more gay servicemembers in the ranks at a time of war — Jason Knight is back on active duty.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Knight– yes, he’s even been promoted — has decided that this time, having been kicked out once for being gay, there’s no reason to go back into the closet. And he’s even more determined this time to remain open, especially since Marine Gen. Peter Pace, Charmian of the Joint Chiefs described homosexually as immoral. Says Knight, “(T)here isn’t much they can do to me they haven’t done the first time.”
It looks like his fellow sailors are completely on board with his new openness while in uniform:
“He’s better than the average sailor at his job,” said Bill Driver, the leading petty officer of Knight’s 15-person customs crew in Kuwait. “It’s not at all a strange situation. As open as he is now, it was under wraps for quite a while. It wasn’t an issue at work.”
Another sailor with the detail, Petty Officer 1st Class Tisha Hanson, works in admin and has had to process discharges for homosexual sailors before.
“I’ve obviously never heard of something like this happening before,” she said of Knight’s return to active duty. “But it doesn’t bother me. The Navy tends to keep people who don’t want to be here, but Jason does.”
Sen. John McCain recently affirmed his support for continuing to discharge enthusiastic and qualified servicemembers in time of war, saying, “I believe polarization of personnel and breakdown of unit effectiveness is too high a price to pay for well-intentioned but misguided efforts to elevate the interests of a minority of homosexual servicemembers above those of their units.”
But a recent Zogby poll confirms that Knight’s crewmates aren’t all that unusual in their willingness to serve alongside him. Perhaps Sen. McCain should actually talk to some of the those service members before assuming that there would be a breakdown in unit effectiveness. In today’s Navy, that kind of anachronistic thinking is quickly sinking.
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homer
May 5th, 2007
I called McCain’s office yesterday and talked to an idiot staff-person about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Criminals get to serve, gay guys don’t. Tells you how fucked up things are right now.
tina
May 8th, 2007
Knight’s a fraud. Lying to advance his agenda.
Timothy Kincaid
May 11th, 2007
That’s funny, tina. While the military quibbles with a couple small points (ie was his recall really voluntary even though the order says involuntary), they don’t dispute the case.
I’m thinking it might be tina who is a fraud. Lying to advance her agenda.
Derrick Bourque
August 16th, 2007
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