Twelve years after repeal of the ban on gay and lbian troops servg openly, no one the ary or Veterans Admistratn knows how many vets are still whout the benefs they're owed.
Contents:
GAYS THE MILARY
* gay single military *
At the time, gay troops weren't allowed the ary. But two years to his enlistment, Steffanis got spotted at a gay bar near his base.
"They cut my locker open and found some gay magaz, " he says.
Not only was agast the ary regulatns, gay sex was still illegal Virgia, and many other stat. "They threw me the brig, put me on bread and water — was huiatg --for beg gay, " says Steffanis.
The Uned Stat ary stggled wh s stance on gay service members for s prr to the signg of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” 1993 by former Print Bill Clton., * gay single military *
" As long as they kept secret, gay and lbian troops uld serve. Rumors sprouted about how he wasn't datg women or had reported on others for g homophobic slurs.
In the years sce, the tegratn of gay and lbian troops has been herald as a huge succs wh no effects on un hn or bat reads, acrdg to the Pentagon. At the time was uncharted terrory, and Alexanr, by then a litenant lonel, sat a room full of senr officers talkg about how to handle gay service members. "I said, you know what, 'I'm a gay service member, ' " he said.