Gays the U.S. Milary Are Now Protected Agast 'Wch Hunts' | Time

Contents:

• GAYS THE U.S. MILARY ARE NOW PROTECTED AGAST 'WCH HUNTS'
• HISTORY OF GAYS THE MILARY--PICTURES
• THE 1975 NCEL SHOWS INDONIA AND TAIWAN AFTER MALAYSIA GAY KISS UPROAR

GAYS THE U.S. MILARY ARE NOW PROTECTED AGAST 'WCH HUNTS'

“Gay” ed to be one too, or at least was when “homosexual” was the monly-ed term. But Tuday’s announcement by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter that gays and lbians will be protected om discrimatn by the Pentagon’s equal-opportuny policy mak clear the Pentagon’s Old Guard has lost the culture war. Talk about change: ls than a generatn ago, troops were vtigated if manrs spected they were gay.

In fact, superrs often lnched what were lled “wch hunts” to fd gay troops and boot them out of the service. “Discrimatn of any kd has no place Ameri’s armed forc, ” Carter said at a Pentagon ceremony celebratg June as “Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr Pri Month.

HISTORY OF GAYS THE MILARY--PICTURES

It as Carter weighs remendg his openly gay chief of staff, former Air Force unrsecretary Eric Fanng, to replace outgog Army Secretary John McHugh. It’s hard to overstate how far this bate has e sce printial ndidate Bill Clton clared 1992 that openly gay men and women should be permted to serve uniform. They were reflectg the views of many of their troops: “At the Mare Corps ball, ” one Mare wonred, “will we see homosexual upl dancg and kissg?

“There’s gog to be a lot of men overboard” bee heterosexuals won’t tolerate gays workg alongsi them aboard ship, warned a sailor om the rrier USS John F. Add a female sailor aboard a sub tenr: “There’s gog to be a lot of problems—a lot of personal juri, if not aths—agast gays and lbians. ” The sre tactics worked for a natn uncerta about the wisdom of tegratg gays to a tradn-bound culture like the U.

“The new policy, dubbed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue, ’ bars the Pentagon om askg service members if they are gay, but forc gays to hi their sexual orientatn or face expulsn, ” the Philalphia Inquirer reported at the time. “Gay activists were disappoted by the l, which are to take effect Feb. They fall far short of the openg of the ary to gays that Print Clton promised last wter.

THE 1975 NCEL SHOWS INDONIA AND TAIWAN AFTER MALAYSIA GAY KISS UPROAR

In some ways “don’t ask, don’t tell, ” by lockg gays to the closet, only plited their liv.

“The allegatns surroundg Wchell’s life and ath suggt that the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy, far om beg a neat promise between barrg gays and openly acceptg them, is beg rried out a way that n create a dangero atmosphere of trigue the ranks, ” TIME reported December of that year. ) A later, the growg acceptance of gay men and women U.

In 2010 General Jam Amos, the Mare mandant, worried that openly gay men and women uniform would be a distractn that uld get Mar killed. Congrs and the Pentagon ultimately cid openly gay men and women uld serve, begng 2011.