Box Turtle Bulletin
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 lobbyPosts Tagged As: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
May 4th, 2007
According to the Stars and Stripes, Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Knight finally acknowledged that he is gay – on his wedding night. Being the honest sort, he told his soon-to-be-ex wife and his boss, the Navy. The wife’s response isn’t reported, the Navy kicked him out.
Then, though no one is sure how it happened, they changed their mind and asked him back. So now Petty Officer 2nd Class Knight (he’s been promoted) is serving in Kuwait with Naval Customs Battalion Bravo as an openly gay man.
And no one seems to care. Who knows, maybe everyone except John McCain already realizes that DADT is soon to be departed.
March 13th, 2007
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune yesterday that he supports “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” because homosexual acts “are immoral”:
“I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,” Pace said in a wide-ranging discussion with Tribune editors and reporters in Chicago. “I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.
“As an individual, I would not want [acceptance of gay behavior] to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else’s wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior,” Pace said.
Now Gen. Pace is expressing extremely limited regret over his comments:
In a statement Tuesday, he said he should have focused more in the interview on the Defense Department policy about gays — and “less on my personal moral views”.
However, Gen. Pace’s senior staff members who wished to remain anonymous said that the general had no intention of apologizing. Senator John Warner, the senior Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, strongly rebuked Pace’s comments, saying “I respectfully, but strongly, disagree with the chairman’s view that homosexuality is immoral.”
Staff Seargent Eric Fidelis Alva, who is America’s first serious Marine casualty in the Iraq War, responded this way:
“Judging gay men and women in the military for factors unrelated to their fitness to serve undermines our military’s effectiveness. Certain leaders’ bigotry should not be a rational basis for discrimination. This kind of prejudice is going to continue to have a direct impact on our national security as we allow qualified gay men and women to lose their jobs for no good reason. This policy — and General Pace’s bigotry — is outdated, unnecessary and counter to the same American values our soldiers are giving their lives for each and every day.”
So here’s a question that Gen. Pace ought to answer: is Staff Seargent Alva immoral? Alva, you may remember, lost his right leg to a land mine during the early days of the war, and was awarded a Purple Heart from President Bush himself. He also publicly came out as gay three weeks ago and is now the Human Rights Campaign’s spokesman against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Gay men and women are serving this nation with distinction in Iraq, Afganistan and elsewhere. Thousands more want to, but can’t. The Williams Project at UCLA (PDF: 246KB/22 pages) estimated that there are about 65,000 gay and lesbian troops in the US military, and another one million gay American military veterans. The Government Accountability Office found in 2005 (PDF: 1,007KB/50 pages) that of the 9,488 service members who had been discharged since 1993 under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” about 757 “held critical occupations,” including 322 with “skills in an important language such as Arabic, Farsi or Korean.”
If there is an “immorality” problem, it’s not with those who have served our country. That immorality rests with those who would prefer that we accept convicted felons over proud, brave, and loyal men and women exemplified by Staff Sgt. Alva.
February 28th, 2007
Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, became the first American to be injured during the invasion of Iraq when he stepped on a land mine and lost his leg in the explosion. As he was recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital, he was visited by President George Bush, first lady Laura Bush, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. None of then knew that Staff Sgt. Alva was gay.
Things today are considerably different. Staff Sgt. Alva will stand alongside Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA) as a bipartisan group of Congressional representatives introduce legislation to overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”:
He imagines conversations with the political opponents he knows he will now face.
“‘OK buddy,'” he said, “‘you pick up a gun and you go fight in Iraq or Afghanistan for a while, then you could come back and we can have a talk because I’ve actually sacrificed, I’ve actually done duty and served in this country for your rights and freedom.'”
Even though Staff Sgt. Alva served under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, he felt comfortable enough around many of those he served with the share his life with them:
“I told tons of people,” he said, with a laugh. “A lot of my friends, my buddies, my closest Marines, people I had served in combat with. Straight guys, married, with children and everything, three of them which I have become their sons’ godfather now. Everybody was just respectful and was just like ordinary. ‘That’s it? That’s your big news?'”
The Government Accountability Office found in 2004 that of the 9,488 service members who had been discharged since 1993, approximately 757 “held critical occupations”, including 322 with “skills in an important language such as Arabic, Farsi or Korean.”
Critics argue that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is necessary for “unit cohesion”, an argument that falls apart not only in Alva’s experience, but also according to a recent Zogby International poll of current and former military service members. This data shows that the current policy on gays and lesbians in the military not only harms military cohesion and unit effectiveness, it is also having a serious impact on our nation’s ability to attract and retain some of the most important skills this country needs right now.
Our soldiers, sailors and air personnel all deserve the best. Staff Sgt. Alva lost his leg and became the first American to be seriously wounded in Iraq. He has been recognized as a credit to the corps. He deserves no less than to have America stand beside him and everyone else who is serving our country and sacrificing so much.
January 5th, 2007
They must have shared a conference call or something:
Conservative military watchdog Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness (CMR) says she believes pro-homosexual activists are using an ailing former U.S. Army general [John Shalikashvili] to push their agenda in the hopes of overturning the ban enacted by Congress on homosexuals serving in America’s armed forces… Donnelly notes that Shalikashvili has in the last year or so suffered a debilitating stroke and is, in her words, “struggling to retain his health.” She says it is “really sad” to see someone like the general being used by the homosexual propaganda machine as “the latest tool of a public relations campaign.”
You can read Gen. Shalikashvili’s op-ed piece for yourself. Both Focus and AFA are now dismissing his stance as the ramblings of an “ailing general” who has become a “tool” for homosexual activists. It looks like this will be the agreed-upon theme for the day. Expect to see more of the same.
January 5th, 2007
Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, who retired as Charmian of the Joint Chiefs in 1997, says he supported the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which bans gays serving in the military when it was enacted in 1993. Now he says it’s time to rethink that policy:
Last year I held a number of meetings with gay soldiers and marines, including some with combat experience in Iraq, and an openly gay senior sailor who was serving effectively as a member of a nuclear submarine crew. These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers…
I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces. Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job.
Gen. Shalikashvili cited the same Zogby poll we reported on earlier, which shows that only 37% opposed gays and lesbians serving in the military, and of those who said they were certain that a member of their unit was gay or lesbian, 64% didn’t believe it hurt their unit’s morale.
How did Focus on the Family react to Gen. Shalikashvili’s op-ed?
Military analyst and retired Army Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis said the general’s flip-flop appears to be motivated, at least in part, by lobbying from homosexual activists who may be trying to take advantage of Shalikashvili as he recovers from a stroke.
“I just believe he’s being used by those that want to use this as a political mechanism to pry open the military and to use it for their own social experimentation,” Maginnis said.
Gen. Shalikashvili’s stand doesn’t strike me as one taken by a wobbly, feeble-minded invalid. It’s a brave stand, a principled one driven by personal conversations, clear evidence that gays and lesbians won’t hurt morale, and concern over a military stretched thin in two wars. In contrast, Focus on the Family’s reaction didn’t come from any of those things, so they went with the only thing left: conspiracy theories and unwarranted attacks on Gen. Shalikashvili’s intelligence and fortitude. Which of these do you think are the hallmarks of the better argument?
American Family Association Picks Up The “Ailing General” Theme
What About Gay-Bashing?
December 20th, 2006
Here’s something else I noticed from the Michael D. Palm Center’s poll concerning “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. One question asked, “Have you had training on the prevention of anti-gay harassment in the past three years?” Only 52% of respondents answered yes, 37% no, and 11% were not sure.
Fifty-two percent seems low. I know from working for a very large multinational company in private industry that if a company wants to make anti-harassment training mandatory, there are ways to make sure that happens. Surely the military’s emphasis on command and cohesion would be able to obtain much better results than this — if they made it a priority.
Another question asked, “What are the strongest arguments for keeping gays from openly serving in the military?” Respondents were allowed to pick up to three answers out of a longer list. Twenty-eight percent chose “Open gays and lesbians would get beat up or abused.”
I wonder how many of these twenty-eight percent were among those who did not receive anti-gay harassment prevention training in the past three years?
December 20th, 2006
A new poll of current and former military service members about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was conducted by Zogby International (PDF: 203KB/27 pages). The University of Californa at Santa Barbara’s Michael D. Palm Center, who commissioned the survey, announced the results yesterday. Some of the key findings:
Notice the difference in answers to troop morale between those who knew there were gays and lesbians in their unit and those who only thought there were gays and lesbians in their unit. When service members actually know someone who is gay, they are much less likely to report a negative impact on morale. When they only suspect someone is gay, they are much more likely to assume a negative impact on morale. This suggests that the current uncertainties surrounding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” actually contributes to problems with morale.
Other interesting findings:
According to the Sevicemembers Legal Defense Network, 4,376 service members were discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” between 2001 and 2005. These poll results indicate that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is an anachronism that continues to have a negative impact on military morale, deprives our armed forces of critical skills, (including Arab translators), and may even leave service members who “Don’t Tell” potentially vulnerable to blackmail and whisper campaigns. It is time for the new Congress to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
July 27th, 2006
Or at the least, revenge. But that’s only because of the US military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist Bleu Copas was dismissed from the Army, even though he never was asked, and never told. His accuser has not been identified. Instead, the Army relied on a stream of anonymous e-mails sent to his superiors. So much for the accused’s right to confront his accusers.
This brings up a disturbing possibility:
The policy is becoming “a very effective weapon of vengeance in the armed forces” said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington-based watchdog organization that counseled Copas and is working to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
The US military has been engaging in an anti-gay witch hunt recently. Dismissals are up 11% from 2004, and the army has no compunction about dismissing anyone regardless of how critical their skills may be. Arabic translators are in extremely short supply, but fifty-five have been dismissed under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” costing American taxpayers nearly $369 million (not to mention unknown lives due to the shortage of translators).
One historic argument against granting gays and lesbians security clearances is that they were presumed to be susceptible to blackmail. But proponents of gays and lesbians have noted that blackmail is only possible if the individual is closeted. Ironically, the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy forces gay and lesbian military personnel back into the closet, which leaves them vulnerable to blackmail attempts or acts of revenge. Because of this, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ends up weakening our security, not strengthening it.
Sgt. Copas, however, showed the kind of integrity that should have made the Army proud:
On Dec. 2, investigators formally interviewed Copas and asked if he understood the military’s policy on homosexuals, if he had any close acquaintances who were gay, and if he was involved in community theater. He answered affirmatively.
But Copas declined to answer when they asked, “Have you ever engaged in homosexual activity or conduct?” He refused to answer 19 of 47 questions before he asked for a lawyer and the interrogation stopped.
Since the Army violated its own policy in asking Sgt. Copas “the question,” he was right to refuse to answer. But that wasn’t enough to keep him in the army. Apparently, knowing gay people and being involved in theater is enough to get kicked out these days.
That is a standard that neither Ronald Reagan nor Charlton Heston could meet.
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