US ary lifts ban on openly gay troops | US ary | The Guardian

Contents:

• US ARY LIFTS BAN ON OPENLY GAY TROOPS
• SAME-SEX MARRIAGE NOW LEGAL FOR GAY MILARY COUPL ALL 50 STAT
• MILARY VETERANS KICKED OUT FOR BEG GAY STILL FIGHTG FOR HONORABLE DISCHARG
• GAYS THE MILARY
• DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL: HOW DO OTHER UNTRI TREAT GAY SOLDIERS?
• GAYS THE MILARY/LGBT LAW

US ARY LIFTS BAN ON OPENLY GAY TROOPS

Eighteen years later, Congrs repealed the policy, allowg openly gay, lbian and bisexual people to serve the ary. Don't Ask, Don't Tell – the US ary's 18-year ban on openly gay and lbian service personnel – has officially been repealed, herg a new era for the untry's armed a statement Print Barack Obama weled the end of a policy that he said had forced gay and lbian members to "lie about who they are" repeal, which took effect om midnight on Tuday, was celebrated as "momento news" by gay lobby groups across the US, who have long fought agast the policy, and among the ary's timated 65, 000 servg gay and lbian servicemen and said he was nfint that liftg the ban would enhance natnal secury. "As of today, our armed forc will no longer lose the extraordary skills and bat experience of so many gay and lbian service members.

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE NOW LEGAL FOR GAY MILARY COUPL ALL 50 STAT

"Last December, the print signed legislatn to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy (DADT), which had been passed by ngrs and signed to law 1993 unr then-Print Bill paid tribute to gay and lbian troops who had been discharged as a rult of the policy, and to those who had lost their liv to serve their than 14, 500 US service personnel have been thrown out of ary service sce the DADT policy took effect, acrdg to the non-prof watchdog and lobby group, the Servicemembers Legal DefenseDefence a memo, the Pentagon said that the policy would not harm ary reads, un hn or recg and retag members. "Effective today, statements about sexual orientatn or lawful acts of homosexual nduct will not be nsired as a bar to ary service, " said Clifford Stanley, the US unr secretary of fence for personnel and reads. "All service members are to treat one another wh digny and rpect, regardls of sexual orientatn, " he said, warng that "harassment or abe based on sexual orientatn" would not be tolerated the Pentagon said recers are now acceptg applitns om openly gay a statement, the US army said: "From this day forward, gay and lbian soldiers may serve our army wh the digny and rpect they serve.

"Across the US, groups that have long lobbied for the change weled the Thompson, of the media monorg group Gay and Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn, said: "Today, Ameri took a momento step forward the pursu of full equaly by fully repealg 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and openg s ary to every brave man and woman willg to serve, whether straight or gay.

MILARY VETERANS KICKED OUT FOR BEG GAY STILL FIGHTG FOR HONORABLE DISCHARG

Litenant Daniel Choi is a former US officer and now rights mpaigner who was kicked out of the army for beg gay after servg Iraq said: "This is not a moment when I have been out chuggg beers. She said many gay veterans discharged unr DADT were often told – wrongly – that they were not eligible for full healthre benefs through the US partment of veterans' said that her anisatn would now put advocy on this issue at the foreont of s missn. Ary the past , stris are still beg ma to improve acceptance, tegratn and health for gay and transgenr service members.

Today, gay and transgenr ary service members enjoy far more rights than they did even five years ago—but the fight ntu to crease visibily and acceptance for this group the armed forc. 1988: The rults of a jot report nducted by the DoD and the Defense Personnel Secury Rearch Edutn Center rerce the fdgs of a 1957 report claimg that gay and lbian dividuals enlisted the armed forc pose no signifint risk to secury (which had prevly been the ratnale for barrg gay dividuals om enlistg the ary). 1993: Print Bill Clton signs the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, barrg openly gay and lbian Amerin cizens om ary service—while prohibg harassment of all “closeted” ary service members.

GAYS THE MILARY

2015: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announc that the Milary Equal Opportuny policy has been modified to clu gay and lbian service members.

2016: The Senate nfirms Eric Fanng as secretary of the Army, makg him the first openly gay secretary of a 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.

DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL: HOW DO OTHER UNTRI TREAT GAY SOLDIERS?

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. I’m like well, the bt way to keep people om beg homophobic is to have them have someone that they know and rpect, who is gay, ” one sailor said.

RELATEDAnd on Monday, the Supreme Court led that the employers nnot discrimate agast their homosexual or transgenr employe. "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. Matt Thorn, terim executive director for OutServe-SLDN, an advocy group for gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr service members, said the Supreme Court's cisn was a msage to their muny "that...

GAYS THE MILARY/LGBT LAW

Donnie Ray Allen, a Mare veteran, and Amy Lambre, who served the Navy, both say the early years of "don't ask, don't tell" brought a h wave of homophobia and wch-huntg to the ary.

" Lambre and Allen were kicked out of the ary wh ls than honorable discharg after allegatns of homosexual nduct. " But even the VA has acknowledged that veterans have been terred om this procs, wrg a September 2021 blog post that "large numbers of LGBTQ+ Veterans who were affected by prev homophobic and transphobic polici have not applied for a discharge upgra due to the perceptn that the procs uld be onero. Former Air Force Capta Andrew Esposa has spent 30 years fightg what he believ was a nvictn fueled by homophobia.

In May 1993, a few months before "don't ask don't tell" was implemented but the middle of a bate ragg about whether gay people uld serve, Esposa's life changed forever. At the time, Esposa says the ary claimed his se had nothg to do wh his sexual orientatn — spe a 1993 letter om a ary official to his mother acknowledgg "homosexualy is a factor this se. " He also had support om an Air Force chapla, who wrote a letter to his mand, "the recent bat on gays the ary and the subsequent policy statement seems to have fanned the flam of homophobic hysteria the ary.