Army fired 11 soldiers in Jan. as openly gay
by Anne Flaherty
WASHINGTON – The Army fired 11 soldiers in January for violating the military's policy that gay service members must keep their sexuality hidden, according to a Virginia congressman. Democratic Rep. Jim Moran said he has requested monthly updates from the Pentagon on the impact of the policy until it is repealed.
In a statement released on Thursday, Moran said the discharged soldiers included an intelligence collector, a military police officer, four infantry personnel, a health care specialist, a motor-transport operator and a water-treatment specialist.
"How many more good soldiers are we willing to lose due to a bad policy that makes us less safe and secure?" asked Moran, a member of the House panel that oversees military spending.
The Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy was instituted after President Bill Clinton tried to lift the ban on gay service members in 1993. It refers to the military practice of not asking recruits their sexual orientation. In turn, service members are banned from saying they are gay or bisexual, engaging in homosexual activity or trying to marry a member of the same sex.
The military discharged nearly 10,000 service members under the policy in a 10-year period, from 1997 to 2007. The number fired each year dropped sharply after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, when forces were stretched thin. Whereas more than 1,200 were dismissed in 2000 and again in 2001 for violating the policy, about half as many — 627 — were fired in 2007.
The Pentagon has not released its 2008 figures.
The White House has said President Barack Obama has begun consulting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen on how to lift the ban. But the administration won't say how soon that might happen or whether a group of experts will be commissioned to study the issue in-depth, as some Democrats have suggested.
Likewise, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill support repealing the ban but have not promised to press the issue immediately.
Lifted from Yahoo News
2 comments:
so sad...
i remember a guest(army) who discreetly asked me if there's a gay spot in dubai but unfortunately dont have a place for him to recommend (at all).
he is one of the kindest from the group, you cannot see him drunk. his gestures will tell you that he is fierce, man enough to lead a batallion. hope he's not included...
Americans are really so barbaric. I recollect in 2001 right after the invasion of Afghanistan. They had fired all of the trained Arabic interpreters and Arabic intelligence officers. The Army had no Arabic speakers for intelligence purposes or for on-the-ground translation because they had just discharged all of them for being gay. My understandings is that it took 3 or 4 years to recover from the gay-purge. Meanwhile, the war spread to Iraq.
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