I'm a Gay Army Officer—Queer Troops Mt Fight Back

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• GAYS THE MILARY/LGBT LAW
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• I WAS GAY THE BRISH ARMY WHEN WAS ILLEGAL. IT DROVE ME TO DRK AND AN ATTEMPT ON MY OWN LIFE
• I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.

In rponse, and apparently to monstrate his petency his assigned posn, the nonmissned officer had taken upon himself to approach the person he nsired cled toward mtg a siar offense the future: me, the only openly gay soldier my un.

Together we approached our un’s learship, where she sisted that the ments had stemmed om the reprentative’s own homophobic feelgs and remend that he be reprimand and removed om his posn as the un’s sexual harassment watchdog.

But by then was hard to ignore the anxiety I felt durg required social activi — “mandatory fun, ” as ’s lled the ary — or the tensn om my fellow moment I cid to bee a soldier and the moment I chose to live openly as a gay man occurred so closely time that ’s hard to remember which me first. It was still four months before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell, ” a double-edged policy prohibg askg any service member about his or her sexualy while enforcg a ban on openly gay service members. A uple were more elaborate: tailed scriptns of what might happen to me if I was ught alone, and proclamatns about the wrongns of gays the ary.

GAYS THE MILARY/LGBT LAW

There are moments when feels wrong to claim my stat as a veteran; as if beg gay ma me ls of a soldier and somehow validated my service. Every memory evok an emotn: rage that I had to serve wh a nstant sense of fear of my fellow soldiers; paralyzg sadns for those who endured ab worse than I n know; and, the worst, guilt over the service members — gay or straight or transgenr — who died while servg the ary while my body is still whole. If "the service member has engaged , attempted to engage , or soliced another to engage a homosexual act or acts";.

* Allow qualified gay, lbian, and bisexual dividuals who have been voluntarily discharged based on sexual orientatn to rume ary service. Ameri’s alli, cludg the Uned Kgdom, Canada, Israel, and Atralia, allow openly gay, lbian, and bisexual persons to serve the ary, and this has no adverse effect on ary reads or disciple (Belk, 2001, 2003; Belk & Bateman, 2003; Belk & Levt, 2001; Belk & McNichol, 2001).

In ntrast to the 24 untri around the globe that officially wele gay, lbian, and bisexual ary service members, the U. In fact, a stop-loss policy durg the Persian Gulf War prevented discharg for homosexualy, strongly suggtg that the U.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Ary enacted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy 1993, about 12, 000 lbian, gay, and bisexual ary personnel have been voluntarily discharged solely bee of their sexual orientatn, at least 8% of whom had missn-cril skills. The DADT policy, however, works agast effective mental health accs for gay, lbian and bisexual ary personnel for at least three reasons. Send, sce disclosure of sexual orientatn is officially prohibed, gay, lbian, and bisexual service members are liable to avoid accsg mental health servic when they need them (Johnson & Buhrke, 2006).

Third, is reasonable to assume that forced secrecy and the fear of beg exposed as gay, lbian or bisexual are likely to disproportnally crease anxiety and dispt optimal performance.

I WAS GAY THE BRISH ARMY WHEN WAS ILLEGAL. IT DROVE ME TO DRK AND AN ATTEMPT ON MY OWN LIFE

Consistent wh a long-standg body of social psychology rearch based on Allport’s (1954) ntact hypothis, scientists have repeatedly found evince for rced prejudice levels toward gay, lbian or bisexual people among heterosexuals who are acquated wh openly gay, lbian or bisexual members of society (e.

The thors of a prehensive recent meta-analysis of the last six s of rearch this area monstrate that the rrelatn of ntact between heterosexuals and gay and lbian persons wh lower levels of sexual prejudice is signifintly higher than prejudice rctn lked to ntact wh any other target group, e. This is reflected a reprentative recent survey of ary personnel, which 23% of rponnts stated they were certa they worked wh a gay or lbian dividual their ary un. Public opn polls recent years have nsistently shown that two-thirds of the public, on average, believe that gay, lbian, and bisexual service members should be allowed to serve openly the U.

I'M A GAY ARMY OFFICER—QUEER TROOPS MT FIGHT BACK

The percentage of ary service members strongly opposed to allowg gay and lbian persons serve the ary has cled nsirably over the last , wh only 5% of personnel the ary a 2006 poll statg that they are “very unfortable” teractg wh gay and lbian persons the ary, ntrasted wh 73% who were somewhat or very fortable this regard (Zogby et al., 2006). Likewise, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Feral Bure of Invtigatn (FBI), and the Natnal Secury Agency (NSA) do not discrimate agast gay, lbian or bisexual persons.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

The experience of the feral agenci and of those Amerin police and fire partments that hire lbian, bisexual, and gay officers n be drawn upon implementg the change. Milary personnel: Fancial st and loss of cril skills due to DOD’s homosexual nduct policy nnot be pletely timated. Workplace heterosexism and adjtment among lbian, gay, and bisexual dividuals: The role of unsupportive social teractns.

Half a after the repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell, most lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr service members still felt reluctant to be open about their sexualy wh their lleagu and cha of mand, acrdg to a study released late study, published by the journal Sexualy Rearch and Social Policy, found that 59 percent of rponnts did not feel fortable beg out at work, eher bee of reer repercsns or bee of the burn of beg a token rponsible for tg their peers. ”Dpe the orrs om above, many veterans publicly opposed the 2011 repeal of the ban on gay, lbian and bisexual service for troops who had grown up that environment, the policy’s mise did not flip a swch terms of fort level ― theirs or their lleagu. “The stctor was reported to e the pejorative term ‘fags’ durg class, disclose other people’s sexual mory inty to his stunts whout their permissn, and munite that he believed sexual mori were more promiscuo than heterosexuals, ” acrdg the the study, based on a rponse om a gay soldier.