I talk often about Don't Ask, Don't Tell in part because the whole policy is blatantly discriminatory and based on religious beliefs that have no place in doling out rights to citizens. In my view, the Christianist support for the policy is part of their agenda to have the laws treat gays as inferiors which helps bootstrap their anti-gay agenda. All their talk about unit cohesion and military readiness is a mere smoke screen for their real agenda of denigration. More importantly, however, I write about DADT because I know so many dedicated gays in the military who have to worry constantly about being outed by bigots and/or those who hold some sort of personal grudge or jealousy. In fact, I have clients who were outed and discharged and never even learned who had betrayed them. Other times the outing may result from meddlesome gossip. The latest example of DADT's poisonous effect is that of Amy Brian who was thrown out of the Kansas Army National Guard after a civilian co-worker said she had seen Brian kissing a woman in the checkout line at a Wal-Mart store. The fact that Brian had served in Iraq without any difficulties meant nothing and she was discharged. All this injustice so that sex obsessed homo-haters like Elaine Donnelly - who has NO military experience herself - can feel self-satisfied and superior to gays. Here are some highlights from the Capital-Journal:
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Amy Brian found out this past November just what the military's "don't ask-don't tell" policy means. No one in the military asked her if she was gay during her nine years in the Kansas Army National Guard. And she didn't tell anybody in the military she was gay.
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But in August 2008, a Kansas Army National Guard lieutenant informed Brian she was being investigated for homosexual conduct after a female civilian co-worker at the U.S. Property and Fiscal Office said she had seen Brian kissing a woman in the checkout line at a Wal-Mart store. From the moment the co-worker made her statement, Brian's performance record and the sacrifices she had made to serve her country in Iraq no longer mattered.
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She joins nearly 12,500 other lesbian, gay and bisexual service members who have been discharged by the Pentagon from 1994 through 2007. "I was not separated because of any type of misconduct but plain and simply because someone else had a problem with my sexuality," Brian said.
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All seemed to be going well until this past July, when another gay Guardsman told Brian "somebody has it in for you" and advised her to delete her MySpace page, where she had indicated she was a lesbian. Brian said the effort to remove her from the Guard started with a barrage of anonymous e-mails referencing her sexual orientation and a networking Web site where her photo was posted. The e-mails were sent to her chain of command, including the Kansas Adjutant General's Office.
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Brian's life since her military discharge has been stressful. She went without work for two months and dipped into her 401(k) savings to get by. She couldn't finish her master's degree because she had lost her educational benefits. Most of all, she has had a difficult time rectifying the discharge in her mind. She said she served with heterosexual soldiers who were found guilty of adultery, sexual harassment, and credit card fraud and received disciplinary actions instead of discharges.
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