Many gay and lbian vets still owed benefs after don't ask, don't tell repeal : NPR

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• AIR FORCE VETERAN ONCE IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY STILL ENDUR THE STIGMA OF A FELONY RERD

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

Ary agast gay and lbian service members, revealg that more than 29, 000 dividuals kicked out bee of their sexualy were nied honorable have long been timat suggtg about 14, 000 service members were separated om the ary unr "don't ask, don't tell, " the policy that banned gay men and women om servg openly om 1994 to 2011, but the ary has never before shared a tailed breakdown of how many dividuals were nied honorable discharg durg and before "don't ask, don't tell, " when gays and lbians were prohibed om servg at all. The new data, which the nonprof legal servic anizatn Legal Aid At Work obtaed through a Freedom of Informatn Act requt and shared wh CBS News, vers the three s om 1980 until the feral urts lifted the ban agast gay and lbian soldiers, sailors and airmen 2010. Acrdg to the data, 35, 801 dividuals "received a discharge or separatn bee of real or perceived homosexualy, homosexual nduct, sexual perversn, or any other related reason om the perd October 1, 1980 to September 20, 2011.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

When CBS News reached out to the Defense Department about the new figur, officials there produced different numbers om s Office of Legal Policy ditg most service members separated on the basis of homosexual nduct om 1970 to 2011 were discharged unr honorable ndns. While some ary laws directly crimalized homosexual activy, other statut were ed as ver charg to dm gay men and women out of the service, meang the numbers may only reveal a actn of the te toll. 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.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

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.

“No longer will our untry be nied the service of thoands of patrtic Amerins who were forced to leave the ary – regardls of their skills, no matter their bravery or their zeal, no matter their years of exemplary performance – bee they happen to be gay, ” said former Print Barack Obama.

AIR FORCE VETERAN ONCE IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY STILL ENDUR THE STIGMA OF A FELONY RERD

“When was ascertaed that the basis of the maladjtment was homosexualy and this was reported to the dividual’s mandg officer, the subject ually received a ‘blue’ discharge, ” said Lt. Gay servicemen and women are protected unr the same laws as any other person and offered the same opportuni to excel and live wh a cent qualy of life whout fear of stroyg their reers.

“That is why I say to all Amerins, gay or straight, who want nothg more than to fend this untry uniform: Your untry needs you, your untry wants you, and we will be honored to wele you to the ranks of the ft ary the world has ever known, ” stated Obama. It remend a formal apology and pensatn of up to £50m.“As today’s report mak clear, that perd many endured the most horrific sexual abe and vlence, homophobic bullyg and harassment, all while bravely servg this untry,” Sunak told MP.“Today, on behalf of the Brish state, I apologise. Many of those targeted had faced “somethg of a wch-hunt”, he said, cludg havg their nfinc broken, abe and beg forced to take tts wh no medil basis.Promisg the ernment would implement the “vast majory” of Etherton’s remendatns, Wallace said he would fully update the Commons a formal bate about the issue after the summer.Asked about pensatn, Wallace said he hoped to fd “an elegant solutn that match the need and the requirements of those dividuals”, promisg to set this out after recs.Dame Kelly Holm, who served the army and me out as gay last year, was among mpaigners who weled the apology.

“It means a huge amount to be here today and to hear and be part of this wh some other veterans that are all part of the review,” the Olympic athlete said.“From a personal pot of view, the ban affected me terms of who I was and what I uldn’t be for 34 years, leadg me to do my documentary last year.”Rpondg to Sunak at PMQs, Keir Starmer said he was proud that was a Labour ernment that had repealed the ban, and he weled the apology.Starmer said one of his nstuents, Ken Wright, a former RAF service member who was “forced to leave the job he loved simply bee he was gay”, was the public gallery to hear the apology.Etherton’s report said: “I remend that the prime mister should liver an apology the UK parliament on behalf of the natn to all those LGBT service personnel who served unr and suffered om the ban (whether or not they were dismissed or discharged).”It remend that an “appropriate fancial award” should be ma to veterans affected by the ban, wh a maximum total of £50m, and said the plan should not be affected by normal ligatn time lims.

”The apology me after an pennt review published Wednday timated that hundreds, if not thoands, of veterans were dismissed or suffered unr an official ban on homosexualy the U. “As today’s report mak clear, that perd many endured the most horrific sexual abe and vlence, homophobic bullyg and harassment, all while bravely servg this untry, " Sunak told Parliament.

Veterans' ttimoni “give shockg evince of a culture of homophobia, and of bullyg, blackmail and sexual asslts, abive vtigatns to sexual orientatn and sexual preference, disgraceful medil examatns, cludg nversn therapy, ” the report said. “From a personal pot of view, the ban affected me terms of who I was and what I uldn’t be for 34 years, " Holm ban on homosexualy was abandoned 2000, when the European Court of Human Rights led favor of four service personnel who were vtigated and then discharged bee of their sexualy.

"At VA, we ntuoly work not only to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ Veterans, but also to addrs ongog issu that LGBTQ+ Veterans face as a rult of the ary's s-long official policy of homophobia and transphobia, " Williams wrote. Before the repeal, openly gay service members who were given an "other than honorable" discharge om the ary were effectively blocked om the many servic and benefs provid to veterans the U. 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.

I am about to be put on a board for major and I do not want to not even have that opportuny to put myself where they n easily be like, ‘Get rid of this guy; if we have to cut 55 percent of the officers up for , he’s one of the easy on we n jt fd a reason to jt ver [ourselv], ' " said one rponnt, a gay Mare.

“I had a few iends there [ trag] that I got to know pretty well, but I knew a uple of them had some pretty strong relig backgrounds and I did not really feel like ttg the waters at that pot, ” one rponnt, a gay soldier, said. "An employer who fir an dividual for beg homosexual or transgenr fir that person for tras or actns would not have qutned members of a different sex, ” Jtice Neil Gorsuch wrote the cisn. “As today’s report mak clear, that perd many endured the most horrific sexual abe and vlence, homophobic bullyg and harassment, all while bravely servg this untry, ” Sunak told Parliament.

Veterans’ ttimoni “give shockg evince of a culture of homophobia, and of bullyg, blackmail and sexual asslts, abive vtigatns to sexual orientatn and sexual preference, disgraceful medil examatns, cludg nversn therapy, ” the report said. “From a personal pot of view, the ban affected me terms of who I was and what I uldn’t be for 34 years, ” Holm ban on homosexualy was abandoned 2000, when the European Court of Human Rights led favor of four service personnel who were vtigated and then discharged bee of their sexualy.

The are the voic explag what has been like to be a gay man1 the Amerin ary over the prev seventy or so years, om World War II veterans their late eighti to young servicemen on active duty.

"I remember beg the Castro, " says John Forrett (army rerve, 1987–99), "and watchg the TV at a bar wh some iends, watchg Al Gore and Bill Clton swearg that if they beme the tag team for Ameri they were gog to get rid of the harassment of gays and lbians servg the ary. " Gay people were allowed the ary but only as long as they didn’t reveal their sexualy; to facilate this, all members of the ary were also prohibed om quirg about anyone’s possible orientatn.