I Was Kicked Out of the Milary for Beg Gay | The Natn

Contents:

• I THOUGHT I COULD SERVE AS AN OPENLY GAY MAN THE ARMY. THEN CAME THE DEATH THREATS.
• GAYS THE MILARY
• ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS
• YOUNG AND LONELY: WHY SOME MILARY MEN REALLY FEAR LGBT PEOPLE AND GAY SEX
• US ARY LIFTS BAN ON OPENLY GAY TROOPS
• I WAS KICKED OUT OF THE MILARY FOR BEG GAYI WAS KICKED OUT OF THE MILARY FOR BEG GAY

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.

GAYS THE MILARY

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. 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.

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. 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.

ARMY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY GENERAL RETIR AFTER SPIRG OTHERS

“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. 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.

YOUNG AND LONELY: WHY SOME MILARY MEN REALLY FEAR LGBT PEOPLE AND GAY SEX

In other words, DADT was different bee only “banned gays and lbians om servg openly uniform” (O’Keefe). Here, Print Obama is referencg those Amerins who ntue to support DADT and, thly, the rtrictn of homosexuals the Uned Stat ary.

US ARY LIFTS BAN ON OPENLY GAY TROOPS

First, we will exame statistics regardg the segregatn openly homosexual cizens have faced recent years due to DADT orr to build pathos and further gment my argument. Also, we will exame lsons learned om history topics parable to homosexual tegratn to the ary.

I WAS KICKED OUT OF THE MILARY FOR BEG GAYI WAS KICKED OUT OF THE MILARY FOR BEG GAY

By lookg further to the racial and genr-based tegratn procs unrgone by the Uned Stat ary the past, we will be able to foree how tegratg homosexuals will likely affect the armed forc.

By analyzg the supposed trimental effects of homosexual tegratn to the Uned Stat ary on un hn and bat effectivens, as well as the burn tegratn would put on the budget of the central ernment, we will hopefully be able to appreciate the views of those who support the DADT policy. From 1993 to 2009, a total of jt fewer than 14, 000 troops were discharged om any branch of the Uned Stat ary on acunt of their homosexualy. This number reprents all members of the Uned Stat Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard who were discharged bee they were lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr.

When asked how their level of morale would be affected if after DADT is repealed they were workg wh a service member their immediate un who has said he or she is gay or lbian, 43.