A Brief History of Gay Milary Policy and Improvg Acceptance, Integratn and Health among LGBT Service Members | USC Social Work

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• GAYS THE MILARY
• THE MILARY GAY BAN: WHY DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL DON'T WORK

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. Mike and Abe were to mentor me on how to survive as a gay serviceman.

As long as gay soldiers kept their mouths shut, the burn of proof fell on those makg the accatns. 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

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. 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. Department of Defense (DoD) releas a policy statg that “homosexualy is patible wh ary service. 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.

THE MILARY GAY BAN: WHY DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL DON'T WORK

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. Due to current Uned Stat ary regulatn, LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr) cizens have to keep their sexual orientatn a secret if they want to serve any branch of the armed forc.

In 1993, an attempt to stifle prott om the gay muny, Print Bill Clton iated the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy (DADT) wh the Uned Stat armed forc. The policy dited that while homosexual cizens uld still serve the armed forc, they uld not do so if they announced their sexual orientatn. This policy mirrored a ban prevly stated the Uned Stat which universally banned all homosexuals om servg the armed forc.