This article, by Jade Ortego, was published in the Killeen Daily Herald, June 11, 2009
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which prohibits gay, lesbian or bisexual active-duty military personnel from disclosing their orientation at the risk of being dismissed.
The appeal was from former Army Capt. James Pietrangelo II, who was in the Vermont National Guard when he was discharged in 2004. The Supreme Court made no comment when denying a review of the policy.
"Don't ask, don't tell" was introduced in 1993 by President Bill Clinton's administration as a compromise to change a previous policy that screened and prevented gay or lesbian service members from joining or discharged them.
The current policy theoretically prevents superiors from investigating a service member's orientation in the absence of disallowed behaviors, including obvious homosexual conduct, statements of orientation or marriage. "The Army continues to abide by current law concerning homosexual conduct in military service. A person's sexual orientation is considered a personal and private matter and is not a bar to entry or continued service unless manifested by homosexual conduct," said Lt. Col. George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.
President Barack Obama indicated that he would support repealing the law, but he has made no move to do so.
A gay soldier stationed at Fort Hood, who asked to be referred to under the pseudonym "Langston" to prevent himself and his partner, also a soldier, from penalization, said the policy should be repealed. He said the notion of secrecy for the sake of "unit cohesion" is paradoxical.
"Can I defend the life of a person if I don't know who they are? How much do I trust them if I can't tell them who I am? ? I think you want to know the person that you're fighting beside and you want them to know you because the only thing soldiers really have is other soldiers."
Langston said that most of his battalion knows he is gay. Once people started asking him, the first person he told about his orientation was his sergeant major. He said he believes he hasn't been discharged because he is well-liked and a good soldier.
However, Langston said he's been harassed and threatened over his sexuality.
"Someone has banged on my door and yelled, 'Bring the faggot out here, I'll take care of him right now.'"
He said, however, that that wasn't necessarily a bad experience.
"You can never know freedom until you have to fight for it. It's just like being deployed."
Langston said he believes that the nature of the policy encourages bigotry in the ranks because it stigmatizes homosexuality. He said that the Army loses assets in the people they discharge.
"You're removing people who save other people's lives, people who make an impact: medics, cooks, engineers, infantrymen, everyone. There's no discrimination among genetics," he said. "Such a small percentage serves in the armed forces at all. Should we further decrease that number by getting rid of just because of their lifestyle?"
"I hold the Army values pretty high. I think that they're really great standards of living, but part of that personal integrity and honor is the ability to say yes, I am who I am," Langston said.
The "don't ask" part of the policy is not enforced, Langston said, because he is often questioned about his sexuality. He was asked to sign a waiver in 2005 stating that he had never had even a bisexual inclination. He signed it, he said, because he would lie to serve his country.
"I'll put my life on the line for anyone in the Army, be they a bigot or not," Langston said. "That's freedom."
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