DADT discharges up, group says
by Roger Brigham
Bay Area Reporter
August 17, 2006

For the first time since the September 11 terrorist attacks, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" discharges from the U.S. military rose in 2005.

Data gathered by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network from Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Department of Defense sources shows 742 DADT discharges in 2005, up from 668 discharges in 2004.

"The time has come for the Pentagon to call on Congress to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'" said SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn. "The law deprives our nation of thousands of skilled men and women who could be instrumental in fighting the war on terror. Our national security suffers because of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'"

After President Bill Clinton initiated DADT, discharges under the policy rose six out of seven years, climbing from 617 in 1994 to a record 1,273 in 2001. In 2002 there was a dramatic drop to 906 – the fewest number of DADT discharges in six years – and the number of discharges continued to drop modestly in 2003 (787 discharges) and 2004 (668).

The largest rise in discharges occurred in the Army – 386 in 2005, up from 325 the previous year.

A small number of bases accounted for much of the sudden surge in discharges:

·     The biggest jump was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where the discharges rose from 19 in 2004 to 49 last year. That was the base where a serviceman was murdered in 1999 by fellow soldiers who believed he was gay.

·     At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, dismissals rose from eight in 2004 to 27 in 2005.

·     At Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, a major training facility for the Army, the number rose from 20 to 60.

·     At the Marine Corps base on Parris Island in South Carolina, discharges rose from 12 in 2004 to 22 last year.

Pentagon and base officials have not given any reason for the increase in discharges.

"The numbers don't lie," said Jim Maloney, executive director of the Military Equality Alliance. "Their meaning is what is open to interpretation. The fact is that DADT discharges have risen in the past year, and it has higher numbers at certain bases where the policy seems to be more zealously enforced.

"It is particularly bone chilling that Fort Campbell has the second highest reported number of Army discharges due to DADT. The martyr of the movement to repeal DADT, Barry Winchell, was murdered in his bed by his own fellow soldiers in 1999 due to rampant official homophobia there."

DADT was signed into law in 1993 by Clinton, intended as a compromise between activists who favored lifting all restrictions against gays serving in the military and those who opposed their presence. It was supposed to allow gays and lesbians to serve so long as they did not disclose their sexual orientation.

An analysis of 2000 census data indicates there are currently 65,000 gays serving in the armed forces. According to statistician Gary Gates, an additional 41,000 lesbian and gay Americans could enlist for military service if the ban were repealed.

"Many gay and lesbian service members are out to colleagues, yet 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' still threatens to cut their careers short if they get caught in the crosshairs of this counterproductive law," Osburn said.

MEA was formed earlier this year to lobby politicians to remove the restrictions against gays in the military. A bipartisan coalition in Congress supports legislation to repeal DADT. The Military Readiness Enhancement Act (HR 1059), introduced in March 2005 by Congressman Marty Meehan (D-Massachusetts), has 116 supporters, including five Republican lawmakers. Meehan's legislation would repeal the military's ban and allow lesbian, gay, and bisexual personnel to serve openly in the armed forces.

A 2004 study by the Government Accountability Office showed that of 9,488 service members discharged from the military for gay and lesbian conduct, roughly 757 were in "critical occupations" – the kinds of jobs for which the Pentagon offers selective re-enlistment bonuses. Included in that number were 322 with skills in important languages such as Korean, Arabic and Farsi.

Bleu Copas, a decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist, was discharged earlier this year by the Army after anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, led to an eight-month investigation. His accuser was never identified and Copas never told his superiors he was gay.

"When the Pentagon fires skilled service members for being gay, like former Arabic linguist Bleu Copas, it is being utterly irresponsible," Osburn said. "No American cares if the person who thwarts a plot to blow up an airplane is gay. We care that our nation is secure. Congress should pass the Military Readiness Enhancement Act. Those who serve our country deserve respect and honor, not pink slips and dismissals."

"My thought is that the numbers have risen as a result of administration pressure and promulgation of official government homophobia," Maloney said. "That official homophobia is, in fact, the major cause of the disruption of unit cohesion in America's armed forces today. The pervasive official homophobia results in every single member of every unit being suspected of being queer. On the other hand, we have constantly increasing reports of acceptance and support of gay service members from their peers at the unit level.

"While the discharges are apparently rising, unit commanders are increasingly putting through the discharge paperwork with regret and reluctance. More and more, we are hearing that those discharged have been told by their commanders that they would very much like to keep them as integral parts of their unit, but that they have no choice in the policy," he added. "Support from peers is similarly recounted in the most recent rash of discharges."